The Sky and The Mountian
by MagicDeCat
Summary: "Birds don't live underground" OC skin-changer x Thorin x Fili x Kili x Dwalin (Rated M for later chapters)
1. Chapter 1

**The Sky and The Mountain**

" _Birds don't live underground"_

"Let's hope it doesn't start to rain again." You say aloud to yourself as the morning grew a brighter gray. You continue walking south, your pack heavy as it soaked up the rain from the past night. Wrapping your gray cloak tighter around yourself you head into the slowly waking Shire. It wasn't hard to find Bag-End after walking through the Green Fields and coming to Over the Hill. You smiled from under your faded purple head scarf and said good morning to the hobbits as they started their day. You are quite a bit taller than most of them, a good foot taller. You had never visited The Shire during your time here in Middle Earth. You knew the hobbits mostly kept to themselves. But they were kind and gentle folk, they smiled and waved good morning back as you made your way to Bag-end.

Bilbo was outside sitting in his garden smoking his morning pipe. You walked up to his fence to better see his garden, "Pardon me Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, but have you seen a wizard in these parts recently? Very tall fellow with a big pointy hat and goes by the name Gandalf." He looked up from his pipe at the wizard's name, "Why yes he was here, in fact not two nights ago. Where you traveling with him? If you are searching for him, I wish you all the best of luck." He says, "And just Mr. Baggins is fine thank you."

You sigh and adjust your pack, "I was traveling with him yes, he said had matters to attend to and told me to go ahead meet him here near Over the Hill, but it seems I am too late. You wouldn't of happen to know where he went would you, Mr. Baggins?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr….?"

"Icarus, just Icarus is fine. I don't have any formal title"

"Icarus, I'm sorry but I haven't the foggiest clue where he ran off to, but if you would like you can stay for afternoon tea and see if he returns?"

"That is very kind of you Mr. Baggins."

"Bilbo is fine since we are having tea, come inside and we can talk more." He says cleaning out his pipe and opening the gate to lead me in. Bag-End is a cozy hobbit hole, everything clean and neatly organized. You have to bend down only a little while walking around. As Bilbo prepares some tea you explore his collection of books in the living room. You both talk well into the evening, sharing tales of adventures and you two grew to be very good friends by supper time. As Bilbo started to prepare dinner you pick a book from his collection and started to read The History of Hobbiton. Just as Bilbo sat his supper on the table there came an unexpected bell ring from his door. Bilbo is greeted at the door by a dwarf who calls himself Dwalin. You feel a warm weight on your chest and a feeling the back of your head saying you should go and introduce yourself. The feeling is not a welcome one. You shake your white hair out of your eyes, you don't like people and you've never gone out of your way to introduce yourself to random strangers. You ignore it and burry your nose deeper into the book so you won't see him. He invites himself in and glances your way. You feel his eyes on your huddled from in the arm chair next to the fire, you don't look up instead you pull the book closer to you and continue reading. He continues on into the kitchen and helps himself to Bilbo's supper. A frustrated Bilbo follows him trying to understand what's going on when there is another ring at the door. Bilbo reopens the door to find another dwarf standing there. "Balin, at y'er service Mister Baggins." He enters past Bilbo who is taken aback at Balin's politeness. You can hear Dwalin and Balin happily greet each other outside the kitchen. You stay in your chair and keep reading, not wanting to cause any more trouble for Bilbo, whose house is slowly invaded by dwarves. Fili and Kili are the next two to ring the doorbell at the door, "Fili and Kili at y'er service!" they say together and enter without invitation. You shift in your arm chair, uneasily as the warm chest crushing feeling come again as Fili and Kili enter the hobbit hole. Before they can bother you Dwalin calls them off to help with rearranging the dining room. They pile their swords and weapons in Bilbo's arms are rush off to help. The doorbell rings again Bilbo throws down the things on his arms and angrily says that no one's home and to go away as he pulls open the door to find a pile of dwarves fall into his threshold with Gandalf standing behind them. You breathe a sigh of relief that he is finial here, maybe he can explain what's going on.

Supper with dwarves is extremely noisy and messy. They chatter loudly, they sing and throw food at one another. They have almost zero table manners to speak off. You feel bad for Bilbo, having dwarves invade his house and storage pantry. When they all sit down you can hear Bilbo talking angrily with Gandalf in the kitchen, you get up quietly and sneak into the pantry to see what's left. There is some dried fruit and a pear hidden on the shelf nearest the door. You take a cup full of the dried fruit and the pear back into the living room and eat quietly. You up your cup in the sink and throw out your pear core. You slip back into your chair with your book as the dwarves begin to sing.

 _Blunt the knives, bend the forks,  
Smash the bottles and burn the corks  
Chip the glasses and crack the plates  
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates_

 _Cut the cloth, trail the fat,  
Leave the bones on the bedroom matt  
Pour the milk on the pantry floor  
Splash the wine on every door_

 _Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl  
Pound them up with a thumping pole  
And when you've finished if they are whole  
Send them down the hall to roll!_

 _That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_

The dwarves clapped and sang along happily. When the song was done all the dishes were done and cleaned. Even the floor and table were cleaned off. You pick back up your almost finished book when a knock comes from the door. "He is here." Gandalf says grimly. He gets up and opens the door before Bilbo gets there. A tall dwarf stands there, dressed in deep royal blue and silver mill. "Gandalf, you said this place was easy to find. I lost my way twice. I would have not found it if that mark hadn't been on the door." The other dwarves gather close in the mudroom and take his things from him putting them aside respectfully. "There is no mark on that door, I had it panted past week!" says Bilbo matter of factually. "There is a mark, I put it there myself." Says Gandalf, "Bilbo Baggins allow me to introduce the leader of this company, Thorin Oakenshield."

"So this is the hobbit. Tell me Baggins, what is your experience with fighting, what is your weapon of choice?" questions Thorin as he circles Bilbo.

"Fighting? Well if you must know I'm rather good at Conquers if I say so myself, but I fail to see the relevance of this?" replies Bilbo confused.

"Just as I thought, he seems more of a grouchier then a burglar." States Thorin as he turns away and walks into the dining room. The rest of the company follows him as does Bilbo and Gandalf. You feel a great pressure on your chest as the pass the living room. Your cheeks blush and you hide yourself in your book. Thorin and the others who make you feel this way glance over at your white hair that appears from behind the book as they pass but don't stop or bother you. You can hear them discuss it in the other room.

"So that's our One then?"

"Yes Me, Fili, and Dwalin feel it as well. But no one has been able to talk to them." Say Kili.

"Been nose buried in that book all night." Says Bofur.

"Their hair is so white and bright like yours Balin." Teases Kili to Balin.

"Do they even know? They must have felt it as we came in." inquires Fili.

"Leave them for now, we can talk about it later." Say Thorin as he eats the saved meal and drink that were given to him when he sat down. "His name is Icarus, and he is the 15th member of the company I have chosen. He will act as magical adviser and magical navigator in my steed. Or to put it simply he is my assistant with useful knowledge that we will need. Along with the 14th member Bilbo Baggins as our Burglar." Says Gandalf to the surprised faces of the dwarves. The conversation turns to more dwarven matters and Gandalf explains the purpose of the company's mission. To reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon and return the throne to its rightful ruler Thorin. You tune out the rest of the conversation and try to focus on the last chapter of this book. 'So that's why Gandalf wanted me to wait here for him, so he could gather the company all in one place. And because I know more about dragons then most do in Middle Earth.' You think to yourself. While that may be true, you do know a lot about dragons. You've studied them in the far north, their ruins, their bones, and every manuscript I could get my hands on. You might even know more than Gandalf about the subject. Bilbo's voice brings you out of your thoughts, he is standing right next to you trying to get your attention. "Icarus, Gandalf wants to introduce you, come to the dining room down the hall when you're ready." You nod in response and rise slowly as Bilbo returns ahead of you. You walk into the dining room, nose still in the book your reading. You mark your spot and look at Gandalf, "Yes Gandalf, you wanted to see me?"

"I've noticed you've been busy reading, and I thought it was time to formally introduce you to the rest of the company. Everyone this is Icarus he is not from Middle Earth and has traveled from north of the Forodwaith by the sea." Says Gandalf gesturing to me and then to the dwarves, "Icarus this is the Company of Thorin Oakenshield, and the Dwarves Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Golin, Bifur, Bofur, and BomBur respectively. And you have already met our hobbit Bilbo." You look around the room seeing all the Dwarves for the first time making eye contact with each, and as you do so the warm weight on our chest and heart grows heavier and heavier until you can hardly breath. Your light purple eyes meet Thorin's last and you blush deeply and gasp for air trying to breath. He moves to stand, "Icarus breath." He says calmly. But you are scared and trembling trying to breath under all this weight. "I can't breathe..." you gasp almost silent. When he moves you take a step back, drop your book and bolt for the front door. "Icarus!" you hear Gandalf call after you. But you are gone, out the door and down the path running trying to breathe. You feel rain pelt your face and soak your clothing as you run through the mud and into the forest. You lean against a tree and catch your breath, finial being able to breath.

You walk alone in the darkness in the wood till your nerves calm down. You look around making sure you're alone, you breathe deeply and unfurl your wings. You are not Elven, not Dwarven, not Halfling and not completely human, in this world your kind are called Skin-Changers. Humans with ancient magic that run through their veins from the time they are born till the die. But you aren't from Middle Earth, you are from normal Earth. From a place where you grew up in a lab with doctors everywhere, always running tests trying to understand your body. You escaped eventually but not without life threatening injuries, that scare your back and arms presently always reminding you of what happened. When Gandalf found you he said that this world better understood this magic and that you would be safer. He was right you are safer, you're free to fly here and explain it as magic. But not everyone is kind here, some have tried to lock me away in cages as a prize song bird. Just some treasure to collect and keep under lock and key. You are free now and free is how you want to stay. You ruffle yourself and fold away your wings back into your body and start walking back to Bag-End. 'You must never let them see your true self' you think as you walk up the path. The rain stops and the clouds part reveling a bright half-moon.

You knock on Bilbo's door hopping he or Gandalf answers. Bilbo pulls the door open. "Icarus, you gave us quite a fright and you're soaking wet. Come back in and let's get you warmed up." You shake your head, "I need to talk to Gandalf first, it's stopped raining please have him come out here." Bilbo walks off to get Gandalf. You go sit on the bench in the garden waiting. "You should go apologize, Icarus. They are very worried about you." Gandalf says coming up behind me. "Gandalf what is a One?" you ask him.

His eyes widen at the question and then soften. "So that's why. A One is like a soulmate, but more physical. Like the weight on your chest and heart. You are connected to your One or Ones fully for the first time when eye contact is made. For dwarves, they aren't a lot of female dwarves so one person can have multiple Ones. Now that the connection is made fully they will never harm you, never abandon you, and treat you to their fullest. I did not know this would happen, my apologize." He puts a hand on your shoulder and guides you back inside, "Let us go in it is still cold out." We return inside and Bilbo hands you a warm fluffy towel. Wrapping yourself in it thanking him silently. I walk back into the dining room where the dwarves are still discussing the adventure ahead. When I enter they grow silent and all look at me, I can feel the awkwardness and concern. "My apologies everyone, please forgive my outburst. I am Icarus and it is a pleasure to meet all of you." You bow your head a little, "I am here at Gandalf's request to help you best I can on your quest." You blush lightly, "And my Ones, please forgive me but this is all very new to me. Please give me time to understand…this. Please excuse me." You do not give them time to respond before you head back to the mudroom. You grab your bag and ask Bilbo if there is a spear bedroom you could use to change.

You change out of your wet clothes and into dry ones. You hang you stuff up to dry in the washroom and head back out to the living room. The dwarves are calmly roaming around the hobbit hole now, some still talking and catching up with each other. You over head Thorin and Balin talking about Bilbo not wanting to come along. You aren't surprised, hobbits aren't the most adventurist of Middle Earth. You grab a blanket from the couch and curl back up in your arm chair and try to sleep. Thorin stands opposite you gazing into the fire deep in thought. He starts to sing deeply and the others join in,

 _Far over the Misty Mountains cold  
To dungeons deep and caverns old  
We must away, ere break of day  
To find our long forgotten gold_

 _The pines were roaring on the heights  
The wind were moaning in the night  
The fire was red, it flaming spread  
The trees like torches blazed with light_

 _Far over the Misty Mountains cold  
To dungeons deep and caverns old  
We must away, ere break of day  
To find our long forgotten gold_

 _The pines were roaring on the heights  
The wind were moaning in the night  
The fire was red, it flaming spread  
The trees like torches blazed with light_

You can feel the sadness and aching hearts of your Ones and the others. Knowing how they lost their home and many brothers, friends, and family during the fight. You didn't know you were crying through closed eyes until you felt a soft hand on your cheek wiping away your tears thinking you're asleep. Kili's hands are soft as they wipe away tears and Fili pets your soft white hair gently sending you into dream land. Surrounded by humming dwarves and a warm fire.


	2. Chapter 2

You were awoken by a clattering sound early the next morning still curled up in the chair, someone had covered you with a blanket and gave you a pillow that you were clutching close to your chest. You heard it again and you see Gandalf hitting his head on the front room chandelier. "Good morning Gandalf." You say quietly not wanting to wake the rest of the house. You get up and prepare your pack putting away your gray cloak and making sure everything is tied down tightly. "Do you need help with getting ponies ready?"

"Yes but you should wait for the rest of the company to be up. They won't like it if you're out of sight without them knowing."

"I'm not a child Gandalf, I understand that they will be protective of me. But I'm not required to tell them of my actions and whereabouts every time I step outside the door. They will have to deal with it." You say as you put your pack on and head out the door.

You and Gandalf took about an hour preparing the ponies and horses before you heard a very unhappy group of dwarves coming up around the road. As soon as they saw that you were okay you could feel their fear and anger fade away a little. Thorin comes up to you and you can feel his anger before he says anything, "What are you doing?" he demands angrily.

"I'm helping Gandalf prepare the ponies this morning." You say calmly as you continue to groom your horse.

"You should have told us you left, you worried us."

You turn to him, "I am not a child, I do not need to tell you of my every doing. I am more than capable of defending myself and I'm with Gandalf, I am more than safe. Now if you'll excuse me, your majesty." You say slightly annoyed as you turn back to your horse to continue your task. Thorin huffs away and prepares his own pony.

The rest of the company were surprised that you were going to ride a full sized horse bear back with no bite in its mouth. "You aren't going to saddle him Icarus?" Asked Bofur. "He's got no rains either and no bite." You laughed a little and pulled yourself up on your horse with ease. "No he doesn't need them, I have rains for the night when we tie them up. But while riding he knows what he is required to do. And the straps hurt him over long distances. And as for moving and guiding I just use clicking sounds and light heel kicks." You respond. You lightly kick your heel and make a small kissing sound and the horse moves to follow Gandalf's mount. You fall into a light trot next to Nori. You ride in silence for a while listing to the others chatter. They start to place bets of whether or not Bilbo will show up. "You're aren't going to bet any laddie?" questions Nori as he passes his bet up to Balin. "No, I don't like to bet. Bilbo will show up wither he wants to or not." You respond. More silence follows, "You know they're just trying to look out for you. I know this is all new to you, but please know we will never harm you or leave you in danger." Nori explains softly, "They just don't want you to lose on this journey." You think for a moment and you feel sadden, now understanding how rude you were of their feelings. You look down at your hands "Nori…. I think I understand now. I'm sorry." You respond quietly, "I need to talk with Thorin." You tap your heel twice into your mount and he gallops up next to Thorin. "Um… hey Thorin. I need to apologize for a few things." You express nervously, you were not good at these feelings talk. He glances at you expectantly waiting for you to continue. "I'm sorry." You say trying to sound as sensual as possible, "… sorry for snapping back at you like I did. You all are just trying to look out for me, and keep me safe best you can. I've never had anyone looking out for me, like you guys are doing." You had started to bride your horse's hair as you apologized to Thorin. And it now lay I nice neat ropes on his neck. You glanced over and see him smile up at you a little. "Thank you for understanding." Is all he says before he trots a head of you. You breathe a sigh of relief and continue down the path.

"Wait! Wait!" you hear Bilbo yell as he comes running up the path "I signed it. I signed it." He pants as he hands the paperwork up to Balin who checks it over. "Everything seems to be in order! Welcome Master Burglar to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." Balin states proudly. "Get him a pony and let's be on our way." Grumbles Thorin. They lift him up on to the tiny horse and continue. You walk next to him and you to discuss how he was doing. Soon he starts having a sneezing fit, and he fumbles unable to find his handkerchief. Before he can call out to turn around you reach over and hand him one of your clean extra ones, "Don't lose it Bilbo, this maybe that last one you'll be able to find on this path ahead of us."

Mid-day passes and you begin to hum a little tune to yourself as you undo the brides from your horse's mane. "I've never heard that song before, what is it?" Asks Fili as he and his brother come up on either side of your mount. "It's a tune from way back home called _The Dancing and The Dreaming_." You say calmly, you're a little surprised that they heard you. "It feels like a sad song, isn't it?" Asks Kili. "No no no," You respond, "it is a very lovely song. Not sad at all, but it does remind me of things I'd rather forget. I know lots of songs like that. But I know quite a few happier ones. I'd rather not talk about." You kiss twice and your mount speeds up to walk with Gandalf.

After a long day of riding the company stops for the night. Everyone is relaxed around the fire settling down after a good meal provided by BomBur. You are off a little way from the fire, sitting alone looking out over the cliff side looking at the dark forest under the stars. It's been a while since you've traveled with anyone, let a long a multitude of dwarves and a hobbit. You long to fly over the sleeping forest and glide aimlessly under the stars. To feel the wind in your feathers and the crisp cold against your skin, to breathe deeply the cold air untouched by the earth. It is the last few months of spring, the forest is alive with the tiniest sounds and crawling creatures. You lay down and stare up at the vast darkness as you daydream of flying through the meadows and open plains string up fire flies so they light up the ground as much as the stars light up the sky. You head a deep sad howl from the north east, the wolf and his pack are some ways off. You head Kili and Fili joke about it could be Orcs trying scaring Bilbo. They laugh and Thorin scolds them. He is right Orcs are no laughing matter and should never be joked about. Balin tells the story of The Battle of Azanulbizar, you saw the aftermath of the battle flying over briefly. So many dead, many Orcs and many more dwarves. As Balin tells the story you feel tears falling from your eyes and into your hair as you lay still by the cliff. You can feel how badly it hurt them, the ache and emptiness. Balin tells of Thorin with is Oakenshield branch fighting Azog and how much hope filled his people when he took charge and drove back the Orcs. Thorin's company stands and face their king. All of them as one people feeling the sadness and hope that he brings. After the story everyone is quiet and starts to settle down for the night.

"Come by the fire laddie, it's going to be a cold night." You hear Dwalin call to you. You get up and lay your bed roll in an open spot that isn't covered over head by branches. You notice your Ones all lay near you, for the exception of Thorin who lays nearest the fire's coals. You smile as you stare at the stars above. You hum softly _I See The Light_ as the company drifts off to sleep. "Don't y'e get lost in those stars, you might never come back down." whispers Bofur who lays near to you.

"What if I want to be lost Bofur?" you whisper back, your eyes never leaving the sky. "Being lost isn't always bad. Being lost in the stars, floating in the open space between the endless sky and the soft sleeping earth. Nothing holding you down, nothing to make you sad or frightened. Only yourself and the vast freedom all-around you." You turn to look at him and notice he's been staring at you with awhh. "But you all are down here, so maybe not everything is sad and freighting as I think it to be." You reassure him, "Good night Bofur." You smile at him and you roll over to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning the company discovers that Gandalf's horse ran off into the night, most likely scared by the wolf howls. So you give Gandalf your horse and take turns riding with your Ones, getting to know each little by little. Over the past few days the weather continues to turn grayer and grayer. This morning it was raining well before mid-day; the company had stopped to try to water proof as much gear as possible. When everything was set to go you walked up to Thorin, "Might I share a ride with you today?" you asked. You and Thorin hadn't talked much at all after the first day and your apology. You could tell he was a bit surprised at your request, he responded "It would be an honor." He climbs up into his saddle then helps you up behind him. You don't talk much while riding with him, but it felt nice to be close to him. You had pinned a small coil of multicolored string to your pants. You undid this coil and started to make a very complex friendship bracelet out of it. Letting your fingers fall into a calming natural rhythm of knotting you didn't notice yourself starting to lean forward until you were leaning on Thorin's back lightly. When you did notice you didn't pull away right away, you just sat there your forehead to the back of his shoulders feeling his warmth radiate from his body. "I didn't know you could purr, my dearest." Thorin murmurs quietly so only we could hear. You blush deeply, stop purring, and sit up straight quickly. Very embarrassed I turn back to my bracelet and don't respond to Thorin. It starts to rain again and you put away your string craft. You pull your cloak closer over yourself shivering a little and you sneeze once or twice. "Thorin… would it be alright if I... you know..." you say hesitantly as you press your forehead to his shoulder again. You see his head node yes and you move a little closer trying to stay warm. "Icarus, here." He says as he reaches behind and grabs your hand and pulls you closer so your arms wrap around his chest. You face heats up a lot, as you hug Thorin keeping each other warm. You feel yourself start to purr deeply as you slowly fall asleep on his shoulder.

You wake up a while later as the company comes to a stop near a burnt down farmer's hut. You release Thorin from your sleepy hug and accept his help dismounting the pony. You don't speak of what happened, you only thank him for sharing the ride with him. You help unpack the horses as Gandalf and Thorin talk in hushed voices some ways off from the camp. "Icarus you're in charge of keeping me informed when I return. I need to seek company with people who aren't dwarves!" Gandalf remarked as he mounted his horse and left. 'Great our wizard is gone and I'm in charge of magic.' You thought to yourself as you set up camp.

The rain had stopped so you help everyone lay out their packs to dry. Everyone worked in silence and you shied away from most of the others once everything was set up. Sitting under a tree near by focused on your little craft. You helped BomBur find left over veggies in the abandoned garden and helped chopped them up for dinner. As you were passing out the soup Kili and Fili kept giving you little looks. A little wink here or a little cheeky smile there, just enough to make you falter a little. You know the others saw you asleep on Thorin's shoulder, thankfully no one heard you purr as well. Dwalin noticed that Kili and Fili teasing you, "Kili and Fili go watch the ponies tonight." He said, they tried to argue with him but Thorin agreed, and they went off with a huff. BomBur gave Bilbo two bowels to take to Kili and Fili. You had a few bites of your share but there was a knot in your stomach and you couldn't finish. You felt uneasy, something was not right, something was going to happen. You uneasily pace around the tree you had been sitting under. The others felt your uneasiness and were silent. You stop suddenly and turn towards the sound of Fili and Kili running through the underbrush and bursting into camp. "Trolls! They took the ponies and we tried to get Bilbo to get then back and he was caught!" Exclaimed Fili, everyone was on their feet weapons in hand ready to follow the to the trolls and save Bilbo and the mounts. You grabbed your knives and stared to follow, but felt someone grab your arm, "No you stay here and watch the camp, we don't want you getting hurt." It was Thorin, telling me to stay put.

"Thorin I can help, I can fight!" You refute. But he is already gone into the underbrush leaving you alone at the camp. You can feel their anger as they fight the trolls. You walked around camp furious that they would tell you to stay behind. A few minutes later Gandalf shows up galloping into camp. "Where is everyone? They left you alone?" Gandalf inquires.

"Bilbo was taken by trolls trying to get out mounts back and everyone ran off to fight them. But they need more help now." You explained. He motions for you to follow him as he goes off into the woods. As you near the troll camp Gandalf tells you to climb a tree and stay out of sight until the time is right. Bilbo was trying to buy time but distracting the trolls with Spices and saying the dwarves had worms in their tubs. From the corner of your eye you can see Gandalf climbing on top of the bolder, "The day shall take you!" he shouted as he struck the bolder with his staff causing it to break in half, shining the sunrise into the Troll camp and causing them to turn to stone. You leapt from your spot in the tree and began to cut the dwarves lose with your knife. "Are you okay Bilbo?" You ask as you cut him free of the sack he was stuffed in. Before he could answer, Thorin cuts in furiously, "What were you thinking Mr. Baggins? You could have gotten us killed!"

"Well at least he had the head to try to bide his time over till sunrise and until I got Gandalf! Additionally, he isn't the one who lost all of our mounts in a single night. He just saved your lives Thorin, you could show a little gratitude." You retort back bitterly, "If anything more happened to any of you I would have jumped down from my branch well before Gandalf was able to help! Don't go blaming all this on the only one of you that had a head on his shoulders!" you yelled. How could he blame all this on Bilbo! You gave Bilbo your knife and stormed off back to camp to pack your bed roll. When the others returned to camp you were all packed and sitting on a log waiting to get on the road.

The company walk through the forest lead by yourself and Gandalf. We stopped near a stream to get water and adjust what was left of our packs. You walked downstream a little and walked in the river cooling yourself off and giving your bear feet a little relaxation. You filled your water pouch and returned to the rest of the company. You helped Bilbo and a few others adjust their packs. The company set off again, you talked with BomBur a little about cooking putting you in a much better mood.

There is a rustle of branches close by, you draw your knives as the group circles you and Bilbo moving forward. We burst through the underbrush and are faced with a very strange old man next to a sledge pulled by giant rabbits. "Ratagast the Brown! How wonderful to see you my friend." Gandalf exclaims as he goes over to greet his friend. "Gandalf! I have very importin news for you…Oh it's it's on the tip of my tough…" he said a little confused, be pulled a stick bug out of his mouth. Gandalf pull the brown wizard aside and talked in hushed tones, but not for long. An Orc scout comes dashing into the clearing. Kili shots it dead but not before it signals the rest of the pack. Your ears perk up hearing lots more in the distance, "Gandalf we need to go NOW, there is too many!" You declare in an urgent voice. Ratagast hops on his rabbit sled.

"Gandalf go I'll draw them off." He calls back as he races off. The company runs out of the woods into open rocky plains. You run in the middle of the company making sure everyone keeps up. Gandalf leads us up and around many rocks and out copings. We are finial surrounded pressed against a rock face. They come at us a few at a time swords clashing with Orc armor and Wrag pelt. Your blades flash and cut easily through their armor and flesh. We are pressed more and more into the rock face. Kili sits firing shot after shot into Orcs but not moving back to the rock face. "Kili get back here!" shouts Thorin trying to keep his nephew safe. But you can see a Wrag running up behind him. You sheath your blades and run head long for Kili shouting, "Kili get down now!" You reach him just before the beast does and you are able to stand over the dwarf and raise your right arm above your face shielding it. The Wrag's open jaw clamps around your raised arm and biting down hard lifting you off your feet and carrying you with it. You feel its sharp teeth pierce your arm's flesh and the strength of its jaw snap your arm in several places. You give a painful full lunged inhuman screech as your arm is crushed. The beast drops you as an arrow loges it's self in its eyes. You fall on your face, the rocks cutting deep above your eyebrow. Causing blood to gush down the side of your face. You get up as fast as you can and run back to the dwarves clutching your bloody broken arm close to you. "Quickly down here!" commands Gandalf there is a cave opening under the rock face that you can slide into. You run over and slide down into darkness. The dwarves and Bilbo follow you as does Gandalf. You pull your ruined head scarf off your head and gingerly wrap your broken are up tightly. You bite your shirt trying not to scream in pain as you try to stop the bleeding in your arm. Suddenly there are many dwarves trying to talk to you at once, you can't understand them. You're dizzy from blood lose and you begin to sway where you stand. "Can't stand…. dizzy… head… bleeding still..." you manage to say before you collapse into strong arms. You drift in and out of consciousness. You feel a bandage placed over the gashes in your forehead, your bag is taken from you and you are carried piggyback before you black out.


	4. Chapter 4

You wake up still being carried through the end of the cave into day light. "This is Riverdell, Elrond can read the map and help Icarus." Explains Gandalf.

"We will not seek help from elves. This was your plan all along to bring us here!" barks Thorin back at Gandalf. You let out a painful gasp as you try to move. "Whoa laddie, don't try to move, be still." Says Balin who is standing next to you. You lift your head a little to look around, you are on Kili's back and Fili is on the other side of you with your small pack. "Thorin…" you whisper, "Please they can help…" You slump back down onto Kili breathing deeply, exhausted from that little task. "Let me do the talking with the elves." Says Gandalf as he leads the company down to the gates.

You don't remember much as Gandalf talks to the 2nd in command of the elves. You lift your head a little at the sound of horses approaching fast. Sudden we are surrounded by horses and elven warriors. The dwarves draw their weapons and form a protective circle around you and Bilbo in the center. Elrond dismounts his horse and greets Gandalf in elvish and addresses Thorin, _"Boe I annam vann a nethail vin!"_

"What does he say!? Does he offer insult?!" growls Gloin. You slip off Kili's back and stand between the brothers supporting yourself on them, "Gloin, be calm. He said 'Light the fires, bring forth the wine. We must feed our guests _._ ' He is offering us hospitality." You explain breathless. You turn your attention, "Lord Elrond it is good to see you once more." You say almost normally you voice still shaken as you brush blood matted white hair out of your eyes.

" _Mellonnen_! (my friend) I did not expect you see you here as well. _Im will gar- I healers ech- a thamb an cin a n- cin are u`- disturbed bui hin dwarves._ (I will have the healers prepare a room for you and be sure you are not disturbed by these dwarves)"

"Thank you for the room but my Ones can care for me just fine." You say nodding to the dwarves closest to you. This time Dwalin picks you up on bridal style as you start to sway on your feet. "Thank you." you whisper to him.

"Very well, please follow me." Elrond responds as he leads the Company up the steps and through the gate.

Just as Elrond said food and wine were brought and given to the dwarves. A feast was prepared, with rich wines and beautiful elven music. A multitude of vegetables and fruits were laid but, but no meat to the dwarves' displeasure. Lord Elrond had Lindir escort Dwalin and you to your room. He leads us down a long hallway to a simple room with a large clean bed. "This room is nearest the healing. There are fresh bandage wraps and salves on the table with in." says Lindir monotone as he opens the door for us. " _Thank cin verui limb Lindir."_ (thank you very much Lindir) You say in elven as you pass into the room and the door closes behind you.

You motion for Dwalin to set you down in the chair next to the table. He helps you unwrap your mangled arm. Most of the bleeding had stopped but it was not clean and the bone was not set to heal. You try to clean it yourself until Dwalin takes the wet cloth from your hand and gently starts to clean away the blood on your arm and face. You give him your arm and lay your head back in the massive chair. "I didn't know you could be so gentle Dwalin." You say softly as he cleans away the blood trail down your cheek. "And we didn't know you could speak elven, or that you knew Elrond from before." He murmurs keeping eye contact with you as he brushes the cloth across your brow. You sigh, "I'm sorry I didn't share that with you all, I did not know we were going to come here." You explain, "I have traveled most of Middle Earth from the Blue Mountains to the Iron Hills and from Gondor up past the Gray Mountains." You voice soft almost like talking through a dream your eyes drift out of focus, "I have met many men, many elves, many dwarves, and many folks who only wish to keep to themselves. Some are friendly, most aren't when they see one like me walking up the path. Some small stranger with white hair that isn't old, and speaks in tongues and languages way beyond their years. People fear someone who loves to seek knowledge. Someone who only wants understand the strange world a wizard dropped me in." On no, you've said too much. No one knows you're not from Middle Earth. You look at Dwalin who has stopped midway through wrapping my arm in clean bandages. "The strange world a wizard dropped you in?" He says confused, his brow furrowed together. "Y'ear not from Forodwaith?" He continues wrapping our arm. "Well I have lived in Forodwaith most of the time I have been in Middle Earth. But no, I was not born or raised there. I'm from a place not found on any of your maps. It was called Deutschland, or Germany in the conman tongue. That place was... very different from Middle Earth." You explain grimly. When he is done with your arm you stand and walk to the open window watching elves go about their day. Dwalin follows you still concerned about you walking. You look over at him next to you, sigh and continue. "Nothing is green or friendly. Everything was gray walls, bared windows strangers looking at you through small windows like you're some exotic beast. No kindness, no colors, no one to even talk to." You were shaking and swaying again. You haven't talked about that place in a very long time. You rubbed your temples trying to ward off a headache, you reached out for the dwarf who helped you walk to the bed and lay down. He sits on the edge next to you. "Icarus no matter where y'ear from, you are my One and nothing will change how I feel about for." Expressed Dwalin. You smiled at him and took his hand in your free one , "Menu gamut khed Dwalin." (you are a wonderful person) you marveled in dwarven at him. He smiled at you and felt his hand still in yours as you drifted off to sleep.

When you awoke about an hour or so later you found Dwalin in bed laying above the blankets with you. You head comfortably lying on his chest as he sat there silently guarding you. You lay there for a little trying not to laugh, little chuckle escaped your lips, "I didn't guess you to be the cuddling type." You say as you sit up. He helps you change your arm bandages. The muscle and skin was healed to scar but the bone underneath was still broken and tender. I set the bone back as Dwalin ties the arm in a sling. We made our way back to the dining hall where we were greeted by 11 dwarves dancing and throwing food, not caring about the mess they made. Dwalin made sure you was seated before he went to the opposite side of the table to the open seat. You filled you plate with fruits and began munching away as you watched the chaos around you. You were starting on your 3rd plate of fruit and veggies when Nori stated, "I didn't know one person could eat that much fruits and green foods if they weren't an elf!" You finished your pile of broccoli and responded. "Elves aren't the only people in Middle-Earth who like to eat green things Nori." You finished eating when Bofur got on the table and started singing The Green Dragon bar song. You laughed and clapped along with everyone, this happy atmosphere was a nice change to what happened earlier today. When Bofur finished his song he was bombarded with bits of food. "Icarus!" He called out, "How abouts you sing us one?" Everyone around him happily agreed and cheered you on. "Fine, fine but I'm not getting on the table!" You agreed reluctantly. You stood at your seat and began to sing a song you had heard at the Green Dragon Inn a few years ago.

 _There is an inn, a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill,_

 _And there they brew a beer so brown_

 _That the Man in the Moon himself came down_

 _One night to drink his fill._

 _O' The ostler has a tipsy cat that plays a five-stringed fiddle;_

 _And up and down he runs his bow,_

 _Now squeaking high, now purring low,_

 _Now sawing in the middle._

 _So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,_

 _a jig that would wake the dead:_

 _He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,_

 _While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:_

 _'It's after three!' he said._

 _Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;_

 _the dog began to roar,_

 _The cow and the horses stood on their heads;_

 _The guests all bounded from their beds and danced upon the floor._

 _The round Moon rolled behind the hill_

 _as the Sun raised up her head._

 _She hardly believed her fiery eyes;_

 _For though it was day, to her surprise they all went back to bed!_

When you were finished with your song all the dwarves shouted joyously. You laughed as you sat back down before you were also attacked by flying bits of food. You held up your head in your hand as you leaned on the table. Even with all of this noise and commotion around, you could feel your eyes getting tired and you started to doze off. It was quite a balancing act, your head held up your elbow and hand on the table, leaning forward in your chair, almost asleep and very still.

You woke up to a sudden dull pain on your forehead. "Ouch." You said sleepily. You had fallen asleep at the table, your head slipped from your hand. Hitting your forehead on the wood in the process. You sat up, rubbing your forehead. Dori to your left gave you a questioning look of concern. You waved it off, "I'm fine, I just dozed off there for a moment." You say reassuringly. There was an almost immediate silence when Gandalf, Elrond and Thorin stood up from their table. Elrond spoke first, "Lindir will show you to your rooms." As everyone filtered out of the room Gandalf stopped you by the shoulder and murmured, "Stay and follow us, we will be in need of your assistance soon." you follow Gandalf as he walks after Elrond and Thorin.

Elrond leads us to one of Riverdale's large round council halls, where we could talk away from public ears. "Thorin show him the map." Commanded Gandalf. Thorin hesitantly handed the elven lord the company's map.

"Erabor? What for purpose do you intend to use this information for?" He inquired. Thorin opened his mouth to speak as Gandalf cut in, "Purely academic, you know ancient texts are one of the things your kind is known for." Elrond carefully examines the map, turning it over and over in the moon holds it up to the light, "I believe there are moon ruins written on this map. Come, we are going to need better light to read them." He hurries off down the corridor for us to follow.

You come up from behind Thorin and walk with him. He looks surprised to see you, "Icarus, why aren't you resting in your room?" he questions.

"Gandalf said you'd be needing my assistance with the map reading. Don't get your beard in a twist, I'm doing alright. Just a little tired is all." You say and you wave your broken arm a little, "Well tired and handicapped."

You reach the doorway to a cliff outcrop with a very large crystal table at the very end. Elrond talks all the way to the table explaining why this room is important to read the ruins here, "You can only read moon ruins in the light of the moon. It must be the same moon on the very same night. Fate is with you Thorin Oakenshield, the same moon shines down on us tonight." The clouds part in the sky revealing the moon. It's light shines down through the waterfalls and illuminates the crystal table in front of us. Laying the map on the table reveals the ancient dwarvish ruins. "I hope there is one among you who can read this, Ancient dwarvish is not something I am versed well in." confesses Elrond. Gandalf motions for you to come closer to the table and read the map.

"Five feet high above the door, three may walk abreast." You translate, almost memorized by the waving shimmering letters, "Stand by the gray stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun when the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole." You look back at Thorin.

"Durin's day is close at hand. There is still time." He says mostly to himself. You take the map back from the elven lord and give it to Thorin.

"We should discuss this with the others in the morning. Here is not the place." You whisper to him as you hand over the map. Gandalf thanks Elrond for the use of the Waterfall of Starlight. And walks us back to familiar corridors.


	5. Chapter 5

~Chapter 5~

As you and Thorin walk back to your room you walk much slower than normal and are holding your broken throbbing arm close to your body. "Thorin if you would like I can have one of the servants show you to a room more suitable for you." You say as you near the room. "No. You shouldn't be left alone in the state you are in. I will stay here tonight." He says as he holds the door open for you. You walk over to the bed and sink down on to the edge, you hear the click as the door shuts and locks behind Thorin. "As you wish, my king." You say drowsily. You stand back up slowly and sway a little before making your way to the washroom. "I need a bath. I'm still covered in wrag spit and blood." You reach for the door handle only to find Thorin already opening it and helping you stand. "Let me help you. You can't wash properly with that arm." You feel your face turn bright red. "No, really I'll be fine." Thorin sighs, "You can't fool me, you are barely walking on your own. I promise I won't do anything other than help you wash. You have my word." you nod hesitantly and sit down so he can reach. "There is something I'll have to explain when you see it. Please be careful of my arm." You stammer feeling nervous. Thorin is very gentle while handling your arm. He helps you pull your two blood stained shirts off and puts them with the other bloody items of clothing from earlier. You are now shirtless in front of him. The old claw scare marks on your abdomen are now visible along with the arrow scars on your right shoulder and left hip. You feel his hand feather touch over your shoulder's mark. "You have seen battle." He mutters as he examines the white scares. You take a deep breath trying to calm yourself but your words still come out shaken "There is more you should see. But please don't touch them." You turn around back facing him. Your back's marks stand out more due to the cold. The underlying white thin cross slashes, the long deep cut under your ribs on either side, the deep healed gash just above your left hip and the two identical gashes from the bottom of your neck down the back of your rib cage they all burn from the exposed air. The two identical wing scars are very puffy and look new. "Yes, I have seen my many battles. Many that I would not wish on another living soul." You sigh and reach out your hand "Help me up please. And could you no watch as I get in? Just knowing our watching um…. I get embarrassed." He grabs you good arm and helps you up. "Of course, let me know when you are in. I'll be right outside." When he leaves you strip your pants and underwear and quickly get into the hot bubbly water, gasping loudly as the water rushes up on your back. "Thorin I'm in the water, you can come back in." you call out to the closed door. You sat in the water back to the door. You heard him enter and the ruffle of clothing. You kept your head down and tried to focus on the little bubble tower you were making in front of you. You felt the water rise around you as a naked Thorin joined you in the bath. When the company would stop at a river or lake to bathe you would always stay back at camp. You never had a relationship before, regardless you always liked privacy and respected the privacy of others. You didn't look at him; you knew he was looking at you. You face was still as pink with embarrassment. "You don't have to be shy, Icarus. It's only us two here." He spoke calmly. You moved closer to him and handed him the soap. He took it and started washing your arms and shoulders. "Y-you can wash my back to if you would like. Just…. Gently please." You stuttered as you washed your legs. You felt his hand slid slowly down your back softly and slowly, testing how soft you meant. When his fingers glided over the double wing scars you flinched instinctually and sat up right sharply. You relaxed a little and pressed back on his hand. "You did not hurt me; it was just a surprise. No one's ever touched them like this. Please keep going." You explained. He washed you gently being very soft on your arm and back. "Face me, let me wash your chest." Thorin ordered softly. You turned to face him and moved closer. You tried to keep your eyes from wondering down his body. You tried to keep your eyes on anything but him. Tried not to look at his long black hair and beard with starting silver, his strong but gentle deep blue eyes, his rough delicate hands as they glided up and down your toned chest. Tried not to stare at his hair covered chest and strong arms. You felt your face heat up more as you took at him. "You haven't seen a naked dwarf before, I'm guessing." He remarked when he caught you staring. Your eyes grew wide with embarrassment and you looked away quickly. "Sorry. Um… N- no one's ever been this close before." You breathed out. Your head felt dizzy and light. "Here this will be easier to wash your hair." He said as he turned you facing away from him and pulling you closer. "Now, lean back on me. It's okay." He cooed gently. You leaded back slowly till your full weight was against him. You could feel the warmth coming off of him, it felt strange sitting in the lap of a king. He started working in shampoo with his hands and fingers into your hair and scalp. The soap smelled of Lilacs and it relaxed you. The rhythmic circles and rubs on your scalp felt like a massage and you could feel yourself melting into his hands. You started to purr deeply and moan under breath. "So that's it." Thorin purred as he massaged your head more, "You like this?" he teased, as one of his hands slowly massaged the small of your back. "Let's finish up, If I fall asleep in here it's not going to be an easy time getting me out." You say pulling yourself up from his chest. You rinse the soap from your hair and turn to face Thorin. "Let me return the favor." You say sweetly as you take the soap from him. He lends back as you wash his chest. Your soapy fingers running easily through the hair on his chest. As you wash his back you can feel how tense his muscles and shoulders are. You begin to work them with your fingers and palms trying to relieve some of the built up stress. Thorin's breathing deepens as you palm and kneed his back. "Is this alright, your highness?" you whisper in his ear and you work your thumbs down his spine and lower back. You work your hands back up his back and give his shoulders one last kneading. You grabbed the shampoo and started washing his hair like he did yours. You could only use one hand most of the time when scrubbing hard. You made small little circles all around his hair line and head. You felt him lean into your hands more and small little pleasure sounds emanated from his lips. "Looks like I'm not the only one who likes this Thorin" you teased as you finished up and rinsed his thick hair out well. Thorin got out first wrapped himself in a towel then helped you out. You struggled a little trying to dry off with one hand but you insisted you could do it yourself. You dressed in your pants and sat down on the bed so Thorin could set and wrap your arm up again. You winced in pain a few times but when he was done it felt a lot better. Thorin goes back into the bathroom to braid his hair and bread. You sit there shirtless on the bed and start to hum The Dancing and The Dreaming. Get up and stand in the middle of the room and stand in the dance's ready pose. You start to sing aloud and dance slowly alone.

I'll swim and sail on savage seas  
With never a fear of drowning  
And gladly ride the waves of life  
If you would marry me  
No scorching sun nor freezing cold  
Will stop me (on my journey, sorry!)  
If you will promise me your heart

And love  
And love me for eternity  
My dearest one, my darling dear  
Your mighty words astound me  
But I've no need for mighty deeds  
When I feel your arms around me

But I would bring you rings of gold  
I'd even sing you poetry (oh, would you?)  
And I would keep you from all harm  
If you would stay beside me

I have no use for rings of gold  
I care not for your poetry  
I only want your hand to hold

I only want you near me

To love and kiss to sweetly hold  
For the dancing and the dreaming  
Through all life's sorrows  
And delights  
I'll keep your laugh inside me  
I'll swim and sail a savage seas  
With never a fear of drowning  
I'd gladly ride the waves so white  
And you will marry me!

Thorin watches from the bathroom door as you dance in slow circles and sing from memory and heart. You sing with a smile and dance eyes closed. You dance in slow circles still humming till you reach the bed and stop. Your arms drop and shoulders sink down. Climbing back into the bed you wrap your shoulders in the blankets. You stare off in deep thought and are startled when Thorin taps your shoulder, "Sleep, we have a long journey tomorrow." He says softly. You lay next to Thorin in bed and you hear him softly humming your song as you drift off to sleep.

When you awake it is late, high noon you guess from the sun through the window. You are alone in the room, no surprise there. You unwrap your arm, the bone is mostly healed now. It is still sore but that will go away in a few hours. There are very light scars on your arm from where you were bitten. You get up and notice a small pile of fresh clean shirts on the table across the room, along with your purple head scarf now clean of blood. You pack the extra shirts away and pull out a deep navy blue shirt from your pack along with a pair of black pants. Both made of heavy cloth, the company must pass over the Misty Mountains soon. You throw on the blue top; it is big on you but very warm. You sit and start to pull on your pants when suddenly Kili and Fili open the door and come without knocking. "Shi-!" You quickly pull up your pants the rest of the way, "You ever heard of knocking?" You say turning away and quickly trying to do up your belt. They both blush and apologize as Dwalin and Thorin come through the door behind them. "Did I really sleep almost all day?" you say partly to yourself as you finish getting dressed and putting on your gray chest vest. "yes, we came to wake you up and help you pack." Says Kili. You drape your purple scarf around you and your gray cloak on your shoulders, "I'm already packed. So we are leaving soon without Gandalf?" You ask turning to face the dwarves. "Yes, we were going to leave as soon as you were ready." Responds Fili. You grab your pack "Then let's go. We have a lot of ground to cover." You say as you pass them out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

~Chapter 6~

It was nightfall and it was pouring rain, everything covered in mud and slippery. We made our way down the narrow mountain cliff. Stone giants fought in the rain and thunder. Throwing boulders, the size of houses at each other. Each impacts carving the mountain and raining rocks on our little path. "We need to find shelter!" Thorin shouted over the roaring wind. As the company travels down the narrow path there are a few close calls, people slipping and almost falling to their doom. The giant flying rocks and derby rain down on us making the path even smaller. Suddenly the whole mountain begins to move. Our little path is carved out of the legs of yet another stone giant. You hug close to the stone as you watch the path break off and you, Kili, Bofur, Noir, Bifur and BomBur are whisked away. You can still hear their shouts and yells calling for you and the other half of the group. The mountain leg moves swiftly as the giant walks you see Thorin and the others briefly before being shoved into the face of the none rock giant mountain. Your half of the party is thrown off the giant leg and you land in a pile of dwarves and rocks. Dwalin, Thorin, and Kili race around the corner to see us safe. As everyone gets to their feet Bofur shouts, "Where is Bilbo?!" Everyone looks about frantically only to find him hanging on by his fingers over the slippery edge. Bofur tried to reach down to him and grab his hand but he isn't long enough to reach. You drop over the edge at the same time Thorin does and help boots Bilbo up on either side of him. Thorin almost falls but you shift over in time to catch his coat while Dwalin caught his arm hauling him up. You start to climb back up but are pulled up when you reach half way. Fili and Kili have either of your arms not letting go. "Dwalin, in here!" Calls Thorin as he enters a cave in the rock face.

There are no fires lit in the small sand covered cave. Each of the dwarves take turns at the watch. Fili and Kili have yet to leave your side. You don't mind all that much, they are just as cold as you are. You kept you pack on keeping your back slightly warmer. You watch as each of the dwarves drift off into sleep. Kili and Fili each fall asleep on your shoulders; you start to nod off as well. You are woken by Bofur talking to Bilbo at the mouth of the cave. You stomach turns to knots and you watch as Bilbo draws his blade to find it glowing with elven magic. "Goblins." You hear Bilbo whisper. "Get up! Everyone up now! Get up! Goblins!" Bofur shouts as he goes through the cave shaking each person. You feel the floor start to shake under you and you see the sand fall away through the cracks. Everyone is awake and trying to grab ether packs, before they get too far the floor under us falls away and you are suddenly sliding down, down into the mountain. You are thrown into a catch pit and are immediately swarmed by nasty goblins. You and the company are pushed along like cattle along the bridges down further into Goblin Town. You can hear the bellowing of the Goblin king singing his song.

You all are shoved before the glutinous Goblin King. You pull your gray cloak hood up as Thorin and Fili shove you between Dwalin and their backs. You bend down trying to blend in with the height of the dwarves. "Who dares be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom. Spies? Thieves? Assassins?" Bellows the Goblin King.

"Dwarves your malevolence, found them on the front porch." Declares one of his henchmen.

"Dwarves? Well then don't just stand there, search them! Every pocket, every crack, every craves." Shouts the Goblin leader. You all are suddenly swarmed by dozens of disgusting and deformed goblins. Your pack is ripped from your back and grabby hands search your clothing. You growl and bare your sharp canine teeth at any of them that try to touch your hood. "What are you doing in these parts?" Asks the obese goblin. The only responds he receives are dark death looks from yourself and the company. "Fine then, if you won't talk we'll make you squawk!" The goblin king bellows, "Bring up the mangular! Bring up the bone cruncher!" You pull Thorin and Ori behind you. 'Better you then them' you think to yourself. "Start with the youngest there and the purple on in front of him." The Goblin king commands as he points a large goriest finger at the both of you. The circle of dwarves tightens around you both. "Wait!" shouts Thorin stepping forward in front of the group. "Well well well!" says the goblin king surprised, "If it isn't Thorin, son of Train, son of Thror, King under the mountain!" He mockingly bows to Thorin before continuing, "Oh, but wait, you don't have a mountain. So you're not a king either, which makes you nobody." He gives an evil grin and sits back on his thrown, "I know someone who will give a pretty price for your head. Just the head mind you, body not included. An old enemy of yours, perhaps, a pale Orc atop a white Wrag." Thorin looks back hatred painted across his face. "Azog the Defiler was slane in battle long ago!" Thorin responds bitterly. The Goblin laughs in Thorin's face and sends off a messenger to tell Azog he has found his prize.

One of the henchmen goblins was rummaging through the collected weapons and pull out Thorin's blade. It screeched and threw the blade at the Goblins king's feet. All around us the other goblins screeched and started beating down on the company. "The Goblin Cleaver! Slash them, kill them, BRING ME HIS HEAD!" Roared the Goblin king. The Goblin minions grabbed Thorin and threw him to the ground pinning his arms and legs, getting ready to slice off his head. Suddenly there was a great explosion of light, throwing back the goblins a great distance but leaving the company unharmed. When the dust cleared Gandalf was standing there staff and sword in hand. "Take up arms. And fight!" he commanded. Everyone sprung to their feet and grabbed their swords and axes and began killing goblins by the dozens. "Follow me!" you heard Gandalf shout as the goblins began to thin out. The company raced after him single file down the rickety goblin scaffolding.

You were having a very hard time keeping up with Gandalf and the others. Every time you turn around they were further and further down the scaffolding. You would have to jump down and across to stay close enough. When you finally caught up with everyone on the last bridge the goblin king busted up from under the bridge blocking your path one way and the goblin henchmen blocking the way you came from. You stood next to Gandalf in front of the goblin king. "What are you going to do now wizard?" the goblin king mocked. Gandalf jabbed the monster in the eye and cut across his overhanging belly, sending him to his knees. You jumped forward and drive your daggers into his heart and cutting across his throat. His body slumped forward as you pulled your blades from his caucus. The dead weight caused the bridge to break and send you and the company riding the rickety remains down the cavern side to the floor, where it collapsed on top of the dwarves.

"Well it can't get any worst now." Bofur said cheerily just before the dead body fell on top of the dwarf bridge pile. You quickly tried to un-bury any dwarf you could find. Dwalin looked back at the goblin screeches over head to find a wave coming toward us, "Gandalf! We can't fight this many!" Dwalin shouted frantically.

"Quickly this way, the day light shall save us!" Gandalf replied as he guided each member through the opening. You lead the group through the twisting and turning rocky tunnels until you came running out into the day light. You did not stop running until you were down the mountain and into the spares pines on the edge of the mountain.


	7. Chapter 7

~Chapter 7~

You stopped on top of a large rock and kneel down panting, taking in deep breaths of cool fresh air. You hated being underground in tight spaces like that. The air is always stale and musty, and the odor turns your stomach. As the rest of the company caught up with you and rested, you walked off a little ways trying to calm your gurgling belly. You could hear Gandalf counting off the members by name. You walked further away knowing you were going to hurl soon and you did right behind that tree. "Where is Icarus? Where is he?!" Gandalf shouted franticly as you spat up bile a few trees away. "I think that's him Gandalf." You heard Bofur say. You quickly whipped your face and hurried back, "I'm here. Just feeling a little green after that scaffolding ride." You say as you sit on a stump near the group. You looked around and re-counted the party around you. "Gandalf." you questioned worriedly, "Where is Bilbo? I haven't seen him sense we fell through the floor of the cave last night." Gandalf looks about franticly asking each dwarf who saw him last. "That Hobbit saw his chance and took it! He won't be coming back, he's gone back to his arm chair and hobbit hole." Thorin said bitterly as he fixed his straps. Him and Gandalf argue for a few minutes. "He has gone home Gandalf." Thorin stated ending their conversation. From out behind a tree Bilbo steps out, "Nope, I'm still here." He says hands in his pockets, still breathing a little heavily from the run down the mountain. "We had just about given you up!" Kili says. "Well he is back that's what matters." Gandalf says happily. "I want to know. Why did you come back?" Thorin questions Bilbo. "Look. I know you dough me, you always have. And you're right I often think Bag-End. I miss my books, my arm chair and my garden. See that's where I belong, that's home. And that's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back if I can." Says Bilbo. I can see emotion on Thorin's face and the face of every other dwarf, letting the words sink in. Letting the feeling of having someone else selflessly put themselves in danger just so they can have their home back.

The moment is short lived when suddenly you feel the little feathers stand up on the back of your neck and your ears twitch towards the sound up the mountain. You stand quickly, surprising some of the dwarves, and put your daggers tightly in their holsters. "Sorry to cut this short everyone but we need to move now! Something is coming form up on the ridge." Just as the words left your lips Wrag start running towards the group. Leading them is Azog the defiler on his white wrag "Tear them to pieces!" he commands in Orcish. Everyone starts to run again, quickly away from the oncoming pack of Wrag. The sky darkens as the sunsets making it even harder to find your way over uneven stone and pine. The wargs start coming up from behind but are quickly picked off by the dwarves and Bilbo. Gandalf suddenly stops ahead of the group; they have run us on to a cliff with no way of moving forward or backward. "Up into the trees hurry! Climb!" Demands Gandalf. You scale the first tree you see with ease, sitting all the way at the top. But as you look around to be sure everyone else made it up, it occurs to you that your tree is the furthest away from everyone. And making it nearly impossible for you to reach them without climbing down or flying over. "Icarus!" You hear Gandalf shout, "We need transport!" You give him a wave back of acknowledgement. You were hoping that it wouldn't come down to this. Sense you were a Great Bird skin-changer you had the ability to call for the other Great Eagles of Middle Earth. But in doing this, it will cause a great many questions to arise from the company. Luckily for you there was a small chickadee on the tree branch next to you. You held out your hand, it hopped onto your finger and chirped at you. You whistled back at it asking it so go get the Great Eagles and bring them here. The Chickadee chirped excitedly and flew off quickly.

The Wrags were around each tree base growling and jumping up trying to bite at the dwarves and Bilbo. You clutch the tree tightly as they crash into it trying to make you fall. You watch in horror as the Wrags successfully knock over the trees nearest you and the trees with the dwarves. The company jumps from tree branch to tree branch as they fall, in the end they are all in Gandalf's tree on the very edge of the cliff. The Wrags left your tree along and they all went to the last tree on the cliff. You watched as Gandalf and the others started to throw flaming pine cones at the beasts making them whimper away in fear. You cheered with the others at their small victory. But as you looked down at your tree, it had caught fire from the pine cones. You climb down as much as you dare getting close to the flames and leapt to the ground. Hitting the ground hard you roll a bit before leaping to your feet. You knew the pale Orc was coming closer, you sprinted to the lone tree and climbed it swiftly. You sat just below Gandalf in the tree. "They are coming." You state to the wizard. The tree began to sway and tip over the cliff. "Not soon enough!" Gandalf shouts as the tree topples over. It does not fall all the way over, just enough to lay horizontally with the ground.

Many of the dwarves are having trouble hanging onto the branches and as a result some are hanging off of the other dwarves. As you pull Dori and Ori back up onto the branch you watch Thorin half walk half run off the tree trunk, weapons raise at Azog. We all watch in horror as Thorin is knocked own again and again. You feel the deep growl coming from your chest, "Thorin!" You shout as the wrag closes his jaws around his body, crushing him. You are still holding Nori and Ori keeping them from falling, you are unable to run and help. Dwalin tries to go to him but his branch almost breaks off and now he is trying to hold on too.

The beast tosses Thorin towards the cliff side where he lays trying to reach is sword. "Bring me his head." Azog commands to one of his orc companions. As the Orc goes to chop off Thorin's head you see Bilbo rush over, tackles it, and then stabs it in the chest killing it. Bilbo stand between Azog the defiler and Thorin, ready to fight. You pull Nori and Ori up on to the branch fully so you can go help. You rush over and pull Dwalin up on to his feet effortlessly, before rushing to help. You feel the feathers on your arms and face appearing. The little white feathers create a mask on your face and around your eyes. You feel your canine teeth grow sharper and your claws replace your finger nails. You leap claws ready onto the nearest wrag and orc riders, growling madly as you do so. As you kill the wrag you can head the shouts of the dwarves behind you fighting the other orcs. You made quick work of the orc and the wrag. You rushed over between Bilbo and Azog, your face cut and blood dripping from your claws. You growl threatening at the pale Orc and his white wrag, puffing out your feathered covered chest you step towards them. "Leave now!" you demand, "Before I do the same to you!" You swipe at the wrag and it takes a few steps back. Suddenly a giant eagle swoops in and knocks back Azog and the wrag quite a distance. More eagles appear and start chasing off the Orcs. You take a deep breath and calm your feathers, causing most of the ones on your face and arms to disappear, along with your claws. You turn to Bilbo, "You are very brave Mr. Baggins." You say as you pass him and go to Thorin's side. The eagles start picking up the dwarves and flying away with them. Bilbo is knocked over the edge and caught on one of their backs. One of the Eagles gently flies over and picks up the unconscious Thorin in its talons. You grab the dwarves Oakenshield and sword, tying them to you using you purple head scarf. You jump of the edge and are caught by the same eagle that is carrying Gandalf.

You watched as the company rode the giant birds, all of them scared and worried about their leader. "Gandalf, he isn't going to make it without healing. Him heart fading fast, growing slower and slower." You said sadly. He put a hand on your shoulder, "I can heal a little, but I can't restart a heart Icarus." Gandalf said. The eagles flew us to a large stone tower with stairs carved down the side. The first eagle to drop off its dwarf was the eagle carrying Thorin. Next Gandalf and you were dropped off. You rushed to Thorin's side dropping to your knees. You felt for his pulse, still there but very faint. You opened his shirt enough to put your hand over his heart. "Gandalf as the others are dropped off, make sure they do not interrupt this. I can heal him this way." You advised as you rolled up your sleeves and cleaned your hands as much as you could. 'Deep breaths, steady heart.' You though as you placed both of your hands over your heart. A soft purple glow shown from your hands. You pulled your left hand away slowly but left your right hand on your chest. As your left hand moved away from you thin light purple tendons connected the two. You gently pressed the free hand over Thorin's heart and the light began to pules with your own heartbeat. You started to shake a little, the stress of the magic gnawing away at your strength. "Wake up, please. Thorin make your heartbeat." You said allowed. You felt the feathers on your arms and head appear again. You can't hold this magic much longer. Then you felt it, his chest thumping away on its own and the rise and fall of his breath. You quickly pulled your hands away breaking the link and the purple light faded out.

You got up and pushed through the crowed of dwarves around Thorin. You sat down by the stairs breathing deeply trying to calm yourself down and stop shaking. You looked down at your hands and arms. Dirty white feathers ran up your arms from the back of your hands and up. You rubbed your neck to also find feathers running down the back of it and down your back. You shook yourself out poofing up your feathers and they settling them down again. It's been a very long time sense you've used the magic you've learned from your travels. You felt tired and weak. You needed to sleep badly. But in this state the dreams will surely return. Bad dreams, night terrors that you suffered from when you first arrived in middle earth. With a little pinch of magic, you could keep them away before sleep or enough magic to wake you up before stuff got too bad. You ran your fingers through your hair and held your head in your hands. "It's going to be a long few days." You muttered to yourself.

You got up slowly when you heard Thorin yelling at Bilbo. "What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed!" Thorin shouts angerly at Bilbo. "Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild. That you had no place amongst us." Thorin steps closer to Bilbo as he talks. "I have never been so wrong in all my life." He breaths out as he hugs Bilbo thankfully. Everyone murmurs happy that Thorin's okay. "Thank you, Gandalf." Thorin says. "You shouldn't be thanking me. I did not call for the eagles. And I did not heal you afterwards." Gandalf replays with a smile. You walk over to Thorin, still visibly tired. Taking the make shift bag off your back you untie it and hold out Thorin's oaken shield and his sword, your hands still shaking a little. "Here, I remembered to pick them up when the eagles rescued us. I knew you would want them back." He takes them from your tremoring hands surprised. You smile at him "You gave us quite a fright. But you're fine, well you should be more then fine." You wrap the purple scarf back around your shoulders lightly. Thorin looks from you to Gandalf then back at you. "Icarus, you're the one who called the eagles?" Thorin asks and everyone looked at you, their eyes asking the same question. You sigh and respond "Yes that was me. And I'm the one who healed you too. That wrag sure broke a lot of bones when he chomped on you. But they should be healed now." You smiled and staggered on your feet. You head was getting light and your limbs heaver. You felt more feathers appearing along your hair line, your strength trying to keep you awake rather than keeping your feathers hidden. You felt a hand on your arm helping to steady you. "Crap… I used too much magic." You murmur to no one imparticular. "Why are you covered in feathers?" You hear Thorin ask. You groan in response as you clutch your throbbing head. You can hear Gandalf talking but you can't make it out. You slowly sink down to your knees before the world spins around you and goes black.


	8. Chapter 8

~Chapter 8~

"Wake up…. Need to…. wake up" You mumble aloud. You try to move your arms, but they are lead weights. Next you try your legs, same result of nothing. You can move your head a little only to find it still pounding away. Opening your eyes, you see purple? Someone pulled your scarf over your head. Your arms are too tired still so you fall back asleep.

You bolt upright, wide awake and gasping silently. You are covered in cold sweat and are shaking where you sit. It is dark the only light cast by the stars. Everyone is asleep around you, every single dwarf snoring loudly. They had made camp in a small clearing with a small waterfall close by. You breathe deeply calming yourself before standing and making your way out of camp to the river. You strip down and wade into the river. The cold water sent chills up your spin and caused your feathers to stand on end. You relax and allow your feathers to be showing but not your wings. You dive under the water enjoying the stillness. You stand in above your hips rubbing your feathers and washing off the dirt and crusted blood from the cliff fight. You start to whistle _Over The Rainbow_ aloud to yourself as you wash. You stand stock still, the feeling of being watched floods over you. You slowly wade deeper into the water and kneel in the water with just your face above the water. Your owl-like eyes scan the shore for movement. "Come out now, I know you're there." You say into the darkness. Kili and Fili come out from behind the trees. "We didn't see you when we woke up back at camp." Confesses Fili. "We heard your whistling and we wanted to be sure you were okay." Chips in Kili. You smile lightly and sigh. "You guys scared me. It's not nice to sneak up on someone who's swimming. I'm fine boys. You can go back; I'll be there in a moment" You say as you slowly make your way to shore. Once Fili and Kili leave you quickly get out and get dressed. Before you pull your shirt you ruffle all your feathers and give your wings a good stretch before you hide them and your feathers again.

During the march through the wood you walk between Kili and Fili. "Fili how long was I asleep?" you ask. You could tell the company was no were near were the rocks were the eagles dropped you all off. Fili and Kili exchanged look before one of them answered, "Icarus, you were out for 3 days. You woke up on the 3rd night. Gandalf insisted that it was normal for you. But never stopped worrying."

"You would talk in your sleep a lot. In a language we've never heard of, Gandalf didn't even know what you were saying. Dwalin said it was something called German? A tough not spoken in Middle Earth." Kili explained as we walked through the trees. You walked silently, staring at the ground.

"3 days…" you muttered to yourself. You fell back and walked along for a while deep in thought. '3 whole days. Damn I used a lot more than I thought. Okay well, I've used more before but not all at once like that. And the dreams are getting worse. More vivid, and it's getting harder to wake up from them. I'm glad Dwalin only told them what the language was called.' You speed up and catch up with everyone.

That night you woke again, suddenly wide awake and shaking. Getting up silently you made your way from the camp to a moon lit clearing nearby. You tried to calm yourself, but frustrated tears slipped silently from your eyes and down your cheeks. Gently you started punching a tree near you. Not angry punches, more like training hits. Punch right, punch right, now left hand and left again. Wide right side hit, front right, right, left, left, and high left heal strike. You repeated this pattern for a few hours, striking the tree again and again. You heard the dwarves start to wake, so you returned before they got worried.

This nightly workout after your nightmares became a habit. Sometimes you would do it against a tree, but some nights your knuckles were too bruised to so you air punched instead. Tonight was different, the dream you had was more terrifying then normal. Every little sound in the forest made you jump and flinch. You felt exposed and vulnerable on the forest floor. You went over to the nearest tree and climbed up to the first branch. Feeling much better you lay out on the branch and watched the fired coals from above. You drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Only to be woken up a few hours later by Dwalin waking up Thorin who was asleep under the tree you were in. "Thorin, he's gone. We can't find him and Gandalf doesn't know either." Dwalin says in a hushed voice.

Thorin gets up worried. "What do you mean you can't find him." He demands.

"Fili and Kili have circled the camp multiple times and there is no sign of him and his bed roll is stone cold. He's been up for a few hours." Responds Dwalin. You watch silently from your tree branch as the whole company searches around camp, calling your name. You slowly drifted back to sleep on your branch. "Icarus!" Shouted Kili jarring you awake from your sleep. "Thorin, everyone he's up here!" He shouted to rest of the company.

"Pipe down Kili…. Or you'll give be a head ache." You mumbled down to him. You sat up on your branch letting your eyes wake up before you slowly climb down from your perch. As soon as your feet were on the ground you were hug tackled by the brothers. All three of you fell back on to the ground from the impact of the hug. "Shi- boys come on get off me. I'm fine." You say trying to get back on your feet.

"Laddie, why were you in a tree?" asks Bofur concerned.

You get back to your feet and stretch your arms. "I couldn't fall asleep on the ground, so I tried laying in the tree. And I was fast asleep almost instantly." You helped everyone pack up and start the walk for the day. As you walk with the company Thorin picks up your pace and walks with you. You two walk in comfortable silence for a while. "How long were you up in that tree, Icarus?" He asks out of the blue. "Hm? Oh, a few hours I guess. I didn't feel like a long time." You respond as you rub the back of your neck nervously. "But I was the best few hours sleep I've gotten sense…. sense the battle." You almost said sense restarting his heart. You space out thinking about what happened. You feel a hand on your shoulder shaking you out of your thoughts. Blinking you focus and look at Thorin "Hm? Sorry I spaced out a little." You say and wave it off. "I'm fine. I'm fine." Thorin looks at you with worry in his eyes. "Icarus you are not 'Fine' I can see the bags under your eyes. You need sleep." Retorts Thorin. You sigh heavily, you know he's right. You node in response as the company comes to a stop for the night.

After dinner you try to help clean up but Thorin tells you to just sit there and rest. Everyone is chattering happily around the fire. You notice Balin writing in his small note book. His job is to record the journey and keep track of our progress. "Hey Balin you wouldn't happen to know that date today would you? I know you're keeping track in your little book." You ask him across the fire. "Yes I do know. It's October 24th today. About a month to Durin's day. Why do you ask? Something important coming up for you?" You smile at him and chuckle nervously. "Yah I guess it's pretty special to me. But it's nothing for you guys to get worked up about." Fili sits next to me and nudges me in the ribs. "None sense, if it's importin to you it's importin to us." He says cheerily. Everyone's attention now on us now and the others node in agreement. "So tell us, what is so special?" probes Bofur sitting on my other side. The dwarves keep bugging you about it till you tell them. "Okay, fine," You say giving in. "It's my birthday in a few days. On the 28th, in 4 days, so I guess that's special." You start working on your little knot bracelet again, but stop feeling all eyes on your still. You look around and see bewilderment on the faces of the dwarves and Bilbo. "You know birthdays are no small matter laddie." Says Balin "especially the first birthday of your One." Dwalin added. You smiled nervously and rubbed the back of your neck "Don't get worked up about it. It's fine." But the dwarves insisted on celebrating it when the time comes. They began to talk quietly to each other about the day. "Wait, Icarus. If you don't mind me asking how old are you turning?" questions Kili. You refuse to say. You are much older than any dwarf here. And normal humans only like to be about 80 years old in this world. If I told them I was turning 400 in a few days they would ask too many questions. "How about this. Sense it's still 4 days away we can play a little guessing game till then. All of you try to guess my age, you get only one guess. You may ask me 1 question each night to help you guess correctly. If one of you guesses correctly I will sing a song of that winner's choice. And if I no one wins then I'll get to sing a song of my choice on the day of. Sound fair?" you ask the company. They all agree to the game. BomBur asks the question of the night. "How many languages do you speak?" Some of the others groaned thinking it was a waste of a question. "Well BomBur I know 4 languages. Common speech, Elvish, German, and Khuzdul both Iglishmek and ancient dwarvish. And I was learning bits of ancient Elvish before the quest. I have had a lot of time on my hands." You respond with a smile as you continue to work on your bracelet. Ori pipes up, "What is German? I've never heard of it before." You sigh and put away your little project. You sit upright and address everyone with your response. "I was not born or raised here in Middle Earth. I'm from a place not found on any of your maps. It was called Deutschland, or Germany in the conman tongue. The language is only spoken in that region of lands. It sounds something like this‚ 'Ich heiße Ikarus, es ist schön, Sie zu treffen.' That translates to ‚'My name is Icarus, it is nice to meet you.' The language is very angry or gruff sounding. It reminds me much of the dwarvish speech. Very hard sibyls not many soft words." You sit around the fire explaining your language to the dwarves. No one understands any of it but they are still all listing closely. After a while of talking everyone settles down for the night. You dreams of unpleasant things again. Small cages and registrants on your arms and legs. You wake up almost as soon as it got to its worst. You get up and walk past Thorins sleeping spot into a clearing near by. You begin to do your roteine against one of the trees. After a few rounds you slump your shoulders and sit down under the tree. You hug your knees close to your chest trying to become as small as possible. You hear Thorin come out from behind a tree and kneel down in front of you. "Sorry if I woke you." You mumble through your arms and hair. He study's your bruised knuckles as you pull your shirt tighter around yourself. "Do you do this every night, my jewel?" He asks softly as he takes my hands in his own. You don't respond but he already knows the answer. "Let me help." He says as he pulls you to your feet and leading you back to his bed roll at camp. You pull your roll next to his and lay down next to the dwarven king. He covers the both of you with his furs and pulls you close to him. You wouldn't normally be alright with being this touchy feel but you were tired. You allowed yourself to be pulled into his warmth and safe arms. You start to purr softly as he runs his hands through your hair. You fall asleep soon after.


	9. Chapter 9

~Chapter 9~

Through out the next two day you gather the age guesses from most of the company. Many guess between 110-200 years of age. Many explained there guess by justifying that I haven't grown any facial hair. On the 3rd night Kili asked his question, "At what age did you notice your beard growing in?" You handed BomBur the carrots you had finished slicing then got up and sat between the two brothers. "Well now that is a hard question to answer. Here this will be easier." You garbed Kili's hand and pressed his hand to your cheek. He pulled back his hand, at first surprised ,but then felt along your jaw. You did the same with Fili. "I have not shaved a day in my life. And based off of this I can conclude that I can't grow a beard." You explained to the surprised faces around you. Tonight you had asked Kili and Fili if you could sleep between them. They happly agreed, sense you had already had time with Thorin and Dwalin you felt it would be fair spend time will all of your Ones. You woke up before dawn the next morning. Not from nightmares, but just cause you felt like it. As you lay there you felt an uneasy feeling creep up your back. You got up and made your way up a tree a few meters from camp. You sat there silently straining your ears for any sound. You heard Wrags and Orcs running through the forest and something else. It sounded like a bear but much larger. They were only a few miles away, you needed to move quickly. Half climbing half jumping down from the tree you ran back to camp to wake Gandalf and Thorin. You quickly put out the still smoking embers from the night before. Kneeling next to Thorin you shook his shoulder "Thorin up, now. We need to leave." You said not so quietly. You saw him wake and sit up before running to Gandalf's side and waking him.

"Icarus what is the matter?" he said drowsily getting up.

"Wrags to the west a few miles and the bear. They are getting closer we need to go." You said hastily.

"Everyone up now, we need to move!" Thorin shouted behind you waking the rest of the company. You could feel this was going to be a long

The company could hear it now, the deep roar of the bear beast. "Down in the vally there is a house where we might seek shealter hurry!" Gandalf shouted as he leads us down the mountian. Everyone running now as we break the tree line into the meddow, the house in the distance. The Dwarves sprint quickly to the gate but the beast is close behind. You fall back and push Bilbo head of you making sure he stays caught up. The enormous bear is too close now, if something doesnt stop him he will reach the company. You skid to a hault and shot at Gandalf "No one leaves that house once the doors close!" he knods at you and you turn towards the beast of a bear charging at you. You hear Thorin shout your name behind you as you charge the beast. You muscles growing and your feathers visable you let out a screach and you colide with the bear. Scratching and biting at his face. You drop away from him suddenly and taunt him, keeping his attention on you and not the dwarves. You throw off your shirt and vest allowing your wings to fully unfold. He swipes at you and you jump off the ground taking flight. You stay low diving at him and snatching at him. 'Just untill night fall' you think to yourself ‚ 'Untill he is calmed down.'

The fight was a little harder then you anticipated. Your feathers all screwed and your wings limply folded against you. You walk to the door of the house and lean into it hard with a thud. You feathers rise and fall with every breath. Your shoulder and neck feathers are plumed fully making your chest look puffed up more then it is. The door opens and you fall through the door way and hit the ground with a groan. You know the looks the others are giving you. Secrets out you have feathers and wings. But right now you just need sleep. You heave yourself up off the ground and thank Gandalf. You ignore everyone as you throw your shirt and vest next to the door before claiming the poll supports of the roof. And lay tiredly across one of the scaffolding beams in the ceiling. You lay with one arm under your head and one wing tucked under you, while the other arm and wing drape limply over the edge. You can hear the whispers of the company beneath you as you drift off into a dreamless sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

~Chapter 10~

You awoke to the sound of something knocking on the ceiling beam you had fallen asleep on. You sat up to see Beorn knocking on the wood with a spoon. You nodded to him and hopped down from the beam, landing on your feet with a genital thud. You grabbed your shirt and vest from the door and went off to the side room to clean up. You ruffled your wings and feathers before counseling them into yourself once again. Thankfully your clothes were not ripped from the fight with Beorn's bear form. Unlike many times before. Beorn was one of the first people Gandalf introduced you to when he brought you to Middle Earth. He was a bear skin-changer and he was over joyed to discover that you had a similar gift. You friend taught you a lot about this world about how each race interacted and how they reacted to our kind. It was nice to have someone who understood. Once you cleaned up you returned to the main area of the house. Gandalf has just finished explaining what Beorn the skin- changer was. "So are there others like you, Beorn?" asked Bilbo curiously. The great man caught your eye before he answered, "You mean bear skin- changers? No, I am the last one of this land." You took the open seat at the opposite end of the table furthest from Beorn and Thorin's chairs. Beorn gets up and hands you a cup of milk, "Nice to see the bear in me didn't injurer you, my friend."

You smiled up at him "No, not injured just tire me out."

Thorin's voice is heard from the end of the table."Icarus how do you know him?" No emotion in his voice, very cold. You set your cup on the table before responding.

"Beorn is an old friend of mine. Gandalf introduced me to him when I first ventured into Middle Earth." You paused a moment before speaking again, choosing your words carefully. "I know I have a lot of explaining to do, to all of you and what you saw last night. I think it best if I showed you, please follow me outside." You got up from your seat and lead everyone outside. They gathered half circle just outside the house, with some distance between you and them. You took a deep breath and allowed your white feathers to appear on your arms, face and chest. "Beorn is not the only skin-changer left in this world. He is the last bear one, yes that is true. But I am also a skin-changer, a great owl changer." You took off your tops and unfolded your large owl wings. You felt yourself begin to shake from your nerves, no matte how hard you tried you couldn't hide the quivering in your voice. "I'm sorry..." You say before running out the gate and taking off into the sky flying higher and higher until you reach the low clouds.

It felt good to fly again during the day. During the journey so far you were able to sneak away a few times and fly a little but only during the night. You flew silently around in the clouds before coming back down to the ground. You landed in the tree in Beorn's garden close enough that you could hear the voices from the open window. You could hear them arguing about something, wither it was about you, you couldn't tell. Hopping down from the tree you picked up your shirt and put it on. Little slits in the back allow your wings to poke through. You ruffled and hid most of the other feathers on your chest and arms just leaving your wings out. You sit down on the front porch steps and try to relax.

You head the door behind you open and shut behind you as Bilbo come out. "Hey, needed some fresh air?" you say as he sits down next to you.

"Angry dwarves aren't the best company to be around. Icarus, if it's not too bold of me to ask, why did you hide this from the company?" he asks cautiously.

You sigh and relax your wings a little."Okay, just try and imagine you are the only one of your kind. The only Hobbit left in the world. If you go bragging about it people will talk about it from town to town. Now one person hears about you, and gets the idea he can make money off of this. By showing you off to the world like some prized artifact or exotic animal. So they heir a bunch of guys to come and kidnap you. It works and you spend the rest of your life in a cage. Now imagine you had said nothing in the first town. No one knows what or who you are and you are safe. No kidnapping and no cages. Do you see where I'm going with this?" you try to explain, as your wings ruffled on their own. "I said nothing because I didn't want to go back to a life in a cage. Even now that know I can trust all of you, I still felt like I had to hide it to protect myself. I'm really sorry for hiding it as long as I did." You hung your head in your hands. Folding your wings against your back to hid them fully. You and Bilbo sat in silence for a few moments.

"No one here is going to lock you away" Bilbo says calmly as he gets up and goes back inside. You head back inside after him and sit back down at the table to finish your food. Suddenly you remember something you left here a long time ago. Maybe Beorn saved it somewhere along with some of your old stuff. "Hey Beorn you didn't happen to save any of my things I left here did you?" You ask as he cleans up his table. He nods yes and points to the hay loft in the ceiling. You climb up one of the polls and search around the space. You find a small box with your stuff in it and your guitar next to it. In the box there is one of your old traveling cloaks, a few small books and a leather bound notebook. You take the notebook and flip through the pages. It's filled with sheet music that you wrote down. Songs you never wanted to forget. Most of it is guitar but some is piano and harp format. You sit with your legs hanging over the edge as you gently tune your guitar strings. You can see everyone under you arguing and disagreeing. "This is all my fault... I should have just told them." you think aloud to yourself. A song comes to mind that your fingers naturally start to play. _Here Comes a Thought_ pours gently from your guitar strings. You sing softly along, sadly you continue to play. You stand and walk along the ceiling beams as you play and sing.

As you play the last cord you felt a little better. You strapped the instrument to your back and climb down from the rafters. You notice the arguing had stopped and you look at the group as you make your way to the door. You give them a half smile an a little wave before heading outside. You sit comfortably under the large oak tree in the garden. Your notebook out in front of you and your guitar in your lap as you slowly strum out a song, writing down notes as you play. Once you get it all written down, you slowly play it over and over again. Leaning back against the tree you try to relax. When that doesn't work you get up and go find Gandalf.

He is sitting inside cleaning his pipe and talking with Beorn. "I can trust you to leave my ponies at the frosts edge. They can find their way back on their own." Says Beorn to the wizard as you approach. "I guess we are leaving soon then. I'll let the others know to be ready." You say to them. Gandalf nodes and continues talking with Beorn. You walk over to the other part of the house were the dwarves were waiting. Walking up to Thorin you tap him on the shoulder, "Gandalf said to get ready to leave. We are going to borrow ponies till we reach the forest. From that point we will be on foot." You explain in a small voice. You go sit apart from everyone, flipping through your little book. Thorin explains the plan to everyone then comes over to you. "We need to talk." He says and walks out onto the porch.

You follow him nervously. He sits on the steps and motions for you to sit next to him. You take your seat and pull your guitar into your lap so it doesn't get damaged. You to sit in awkward silence for a while as you look through your book. "What are those?" he asks suddenly making you jump a little.

"This is only of the instruments I was able to recreate from the world I came from. It's called a guitar and this little book has some of the music I've been able to remember. Along with some things I've written myself." You explain nervously. "I was playing it earlier in the house and the garden. It helps me explain what I'm feeling when I can't put stuff into the correct words." You fiddle with the strings and strum them a little as you wait for his response.

"Could I watch you play something?" he asks quietly. You nod yes, looking up at him confused. You start to play something slow. You hum along as you pluck out _Hallelujah_ on your guitar. About half way through the song Thorin speaks up, "Icarus, do you trust us?" You finger slip a little but you fix it and continue playing.

"I do, my gem. I do trust you all. But I was scared at what you would think. Having some shy feather head weirdo with the company." You pick up the songs tempo a little as you speak "I'm sorry I hid under my feathers. I'm sorry I've hid a large part of what and who I am. But now you know. Now you know I'm just some shy feathered thing with a talent for music and song, that likes to sleep in trees and with a birthday close to Durin's day." The song slows and stops as I put down my guitar.

"You're not a weirdo, and we've never seen you that way." Says Kili an Fili as they come up behind you and sit next to you and Thorin. You turn and see them as they sit and Dwalin in the door way with everyone else behind him. Kili puts his arm around your shoulder and gives it a squeeze, "We talked with Bilbo. You are a part of this company, and nothing is going to change that. And he reminded us of your birthday today." That made you smile and laugh a little. Turning to face everyone you spoke."No one guessed my age right. But I'll still play a song for you guys." Picking up your guitar you got up off the porch and went to sit under the tree, everyone gathering around you to listen.

"Aren't you going to tell us how old you're turning?" Asks Dwalin how sits near the back of the group. You chuckle a little as you tune the instrument in your lap.

"Well Dwalin, if you must know. Today I turn 400 years old, in dwarven comparison I would be early hundred." You confessed nervously. You start to play the song you wrote earlier in your little book. " _Love Like You"_ you say quietly as you start to play and sing.

 _If I could begin to be  
Half of what you think of me,  
I could do about anything,  
I could even learn how to love._

When I see the way you act,  
Wondering when I'm coming back,  
I could do about anything,  
I could even learn how to love like you.

Love, like you...

I always thought I might be bad,  
Now I'm sure that it's true  
'cause I think you're so good  
And I'm nothing like you.

Look at you go,  
I just adore you,  
I wish that I knew  
What makes you think I'm so special

If I could begin to do  
Something that does right by you,  
I would do about anything,  
I would even learn how to love.

When I see the way you look.  
Shaken by how long it took,  
I could do about anything,  
I could even learn how to love like you.

Love like you...


	11. Chapter 11

~Chapter 11~

Beorn gave each of the dwarves and Bilbo a pony to ride. You didn't accept his kind offer you prefer to fly now that you could do so openly around the company. Before you left you put the guitar away safely but kept the notebook tucked inside your vest. As the company starts on their long ride you begin by walking alongside the mounts. After a few hours Gandalf calls out "We need to pick the pace." And kicks his mount into a run. The other ponies start to run as well. You run off the path and unfold your wings, taking off into the sky. You circle around to fly near the front of the company just above the tree tops.

You devise a plan and swoop low into the meadow flowers and grab an arm full. Then return to fly above the company, but this time on my back to keep the flowers hidden. After a while, you have two flower crowns created and looped them on your arm. Falling to the back of the line you slow and silently fly up behind Kili. Looking over you see Bofur trying not to laugh. You put a finger to your lips to keep him quiet. You try your approach again hovering just above Kili and Fili's heads. You drop one flower crown on Kili's head then one on Fili's. Kili didn't notice at first but Fili started laughing as he watched me do it to his brother. Letting the wind carry you up you laughed and tears came to your eyes as they discovered the circle of flowers on their heads. They both quickly took them off as everyone turned to the sound of the laughter. "What's going on back there?" Yells Thorin to the back of the company. You here Bofur say it was nothing, letting Thorin brush it off.

You landed near the Mirkwood forest and folded your wings completely hiding them. Something didn't feel right. The air in the wood was musky and foul, something was very wrong. The ponies turned back the way you all came as soon as they were dismounted. "As long as you stay on the elven path you will make it through safely. I will meet you at the mountain as soon as I can." Gandalf said as he mounted his horse again.

You rushed over to him "Gandalf this forest is not safe. And… and you know what will happen if stuff doesn't go as you plan." You say a little panicked.

"That is why you are here. To be sure to guide them safely through." He responds before trotting quickly away on his horse. You gather back with the rest of the company as they start their way down the over grown path into Mirkwood forest. For the first few hours it isn't bad, until the pounding in your head starts to mess with your eyes. From then on you stuck close to Kili or Fili. The little feathers on the back of your neck were standing up as you felt the sickness of the forest. You tried your best to be sure you all stayed on the path, but you knew that it was gone and that you had been off it for a while now. "Hey we need to stop a moment." You called to the group. After much mumbling and grunts everyone stopped under a large tree. Walking up to Thorin you said "Now, stay here. I'm going to climb up and see what way we need to go." You can see how clouded his mind is but he still nods to you. You don't trust yourself to fly so you climb up the tree and Bilbo follows you knowing what you are trying to do. Saw you and the hobbit reach the tree top the air clears and your heads clear up fully. You point to the east, "Look there's the mountain. Looks like just a little over a mile of forest then the lake." You say excitedly to Bilbo.

"I'm going to head back down. We shouldn't leave them alone for this long." Bilbo responds as he starts back down the tree. You stay up there for a moment longer before following the hobbit down. When you made it back down to the ground you were along. "Bilbo?" you call out. Everyone was gone and there was no sign of there they went. You strain your ears trying to hear anything but you only hear the forest and the fake sounds it was playing trying to trick you. Climbing the tree again you appeared above the leaves and tried to listen again. You heard the faint shouts of the dwarves coming up from under the leaves. Flying above the tree tops you located the fighting.

Dropping down you discover spider webs everywhere and dead spiders surrounding the company. Rushing over you rejoined the group "Thank the gods I found you! I had to get above the trees to hear your fighting." You sighed relieved. Something still felt off, you pulled your purple scarf up to cover your head and crouched down to dwarf height. You crouched next to Fili and whispered "Where's Kili? I haven't seen him." Fili looks around frantically and shouts Kili's name. The others start looking around but suddenly come face to face with arrow points. Elves with bows drawn surround us. You are pressed into the middle protectively. The leader of this elven group speaks with arrow pointed at Thorin. "Don't think I won't kill you, dwarf!" He says bitterly. 'Fuck it's Legolas. I can't let them recognize me, if they do things will not go well.' You think to yourself. Shouts are heard a little ways off "Kili!" shouts Fili frantically. He tries to take a step forward but the elves close tighter around us. There is a low hanging branch above us that you can jump up to. Eyeing it you whisper, "Stay here, I'll get him." Before anyone could respond you sprung up and pulled yourself on to the branch. You felt your hood fall off as you jumped up. The elves saw you, you knew that, as you jumped from branch to branch towards Kili's shouts.

As you come to the clearing you see a spider crawling towards the fallen dwarf. Relaxing your magic, you extend your claws and unfold your wings as you jump down onto the spiders back and slash its head clean off. Quickly but carefully you pull Kili to his feet and tuck him under one of your wings, keeping him close and safe. Another spider makes its way into the clearing toward us. An arrow flies past you into the spider's head killing it in its tracks. You turn around to come face to face with Legolas's arrow in your face once more. Folding your wings in front of you, you form a protective circle around Kili who is still close by your side. You stare down the arrow shaft back at the elf and growl defensively as he motions for you to move back to the others. When you return to the other clearing you see the others have already been searched for weapons and hands tie with rope. You take your scarf and wrap it around Kili's neck and hide your leather notebook in his coat whispering "Don't read it please." Before giving him a little shove towards the other dwarves. "Icarus! Kili! You're alright." Rejoices Fili as he is reunited with his brother. You flash them a warm sharp toothed smile as you hid your wings and claws. You were still standing apart from the group due to Legolas's bow still on you intently. You tried to move towards the group but he moves to stand between. "Down." He commands. "Go with us quietly and none of your dwarves will be harmed." You feel the feathers on your head and chest puff up as you growl back at him, before kneeling with your arms up. He gives the signal and you are forced face first into the dirt and arms forced behind your back. You can hear the dwarves shouting at the elves as they tie you. You struggle a little as they tie your hands and loop rope around your shoulders so you couldn't unfold your wings.


	12. Chapter 12

~Chapter 12~

When we reached the Mirkwood home of the elves we were separated, Thorin and I were push along by royal guards while the others were taken to be locked up. Guided through winding wooden hallways we arrived in the throne room. You were held back as they lead Thorin up the steps to talk with Thrandril, the Mirkwood king of the elves. You sighed a little trying to calm your nerves and stop shaking. It had been 40 some years sense you've been in these halls. You had been wounded in a fight and way trying to get to the Lake Town for some help. But while traveling/fly hopping through Mirkwood forest one of the elven patrols had captured you. And once patched up Thrandril decided to keep you as his 'Little Song Bird'. Not knowing that you were an intelligent being, he kept you in a cage like an animal. You were able to escape a few decades later, and had avoided even flying near the forest sense then. But here you were now about to be forced in front of him once more. You can hear Thorin yelling back at Thrandril **"Imrid amrâd ursul!"** (May you die in dragon fire!). That made you chuckle a little bit, and in turn received a small thud on the back of your head from the guards. You puffed as much as you could and hissed back at him, making him flinch a little. Drawing their swords, they nudged you up the steps. You passed Thorin who was held back by guards at the top of the stairs. You tried to give him a reassuring look with your dirt covered face. "Thrandril what do you want with him? Leave him be!" Thorin shouted after you.

"Seams you went off and made some friends little birdy." Thrandril began as he cupped your chin in his hand. Growling loudly, you shook his hand off and tried to bite it. That earned you a full hand slap across the face from the king before you. You fell to one knee from the force, but quickly stood back up still growling lightly. "Looks like you still don't know how to respect your king." He says bitterly. You face stung more as you smiled wide and started to laugh out loud. A fully belly laugh that made your eyes water.

"You still don't get it do you Thrandril!" you chuckled. "You are not my king! _Lle naa haran e' nausalle!_ (You are a king in your imagination) And I will never kneel to you. I am not your pet and I am glad I broke free of your chains." Thrandril looked taken back at my words. Frustrated he turns swiftly and retreats to his thrown.

"So you do talk little bird. You will soon learn to respect a king." He retorts bitterly from his safe thrown. Guards grab either side of me as I shout at him more.

"My name is and has always been Icarus! Don't patronize me. The only king I respect is Thorin son of Thrain, The rightful King Under the Mountain!" Your feathers are ruffled up and so is your hair. The ropes around you grow tighter whenever your wings try to unfold. The guards drag you away and force you to follow Thorin down the halls. They take Thorin to the dungeon with the others but force you down a different hallway towards Thrandril private chambers. You know what's going to happen and you start struggling more against the ropes. Your efforts are in vain there is nothing you can do to stop what was going to happen behind those closed doors.

You were dragged down into the dungeons later that evening and forced into a cell. You weakly struggled but no longer shouting and screaming. Your bindings were removed before you were shoved into the cell and door locked behind you. You stumbled in and fell with a thud onto the cold stone ground. You lay there for a while listing to the shouts of the dwarves trapped around you. Sitting up and looking out your cell you saw Thorin's cell was directly across from yours. "What did he do to you laddie?" you head Balin shout to you. You don't answer him, ashamed about what happened. You find the bucket in your cell and force yourself to throw up into it as much as you can. Trying to empty your stomach of the forced wine and other things he forced you to swallow. "Ka menu caragu rukhs (he smells like orc shit)" you growled loudly. You tried to stand in your cell but as soon as you were on your feet your knees became week and you collapsed. Pulling yourself forward you leaned against the cell door. "Thorin, everyone, are you alright?" you asked. You heard shouts of yes and you sighed in relief. You caught Thorin's stare and held it for a long time. "Yes, I am unharmed. But I can see you are not well yourself, what did he do Icarus?" Thorin implores angrily. You unfold your wings and wrap them around yourself protectively as you lean against the cell door. "Forced me to drink tainted wine and other things that should not be talked about openly..." You finial say back.

You sit there silent in your cell. Every so often trying to walk or stand, it was getting better but you were still very wobbly. Whenever a guard passed your cell you flee to the back corner and growled deeply till they passed. Hours passed and night had fallen, the only light in the dark twisting turns of the dungeon were from the few torches about the walls. You tried not to fall asleep as best you could as you lean against the call door. But eventually your eyes flutter shut sending your world into darkness. The assault from Thrandril played over and over in your mind.

You were awaken by a gentle touch on your head, knowing it can't be anyone you trust you puff your feathers and wings up fully filling your cell with white feathers. You jump away from the door and growl angrily at the elf who pet you. With your wings pressed painfully against the walls you hiss at Thrandril who stands outside your prison. "Bleil mir fern! Bleil mir fern!" (stay away from me! stay away from me!) you pleaded in German as you tried to press yourself as far back in the cell as you could. Thrandril reached through the bars and placed a pear on the ground then stood and quickly left.

Once you knew he was gone you relaxed a little and folding your wings back against your back. Walking to the door and looking out you could see Thorin still in his cell watching you intently. You grab the bars on the door and give them a strong tug. You ram your body into it a few times trying to open it. "Already tried that. They are sealed by magic." You head Dwalin call out hearing you try to escape.

"Must be nearly dawn I recon." States Bofur sourly.

"We're never going to make it to the mountain are we" Ori says sorrowfully.

"Not stuck in here you're not" exclaims Bilbo appearing out of no were with the cell keys in his hand. Bilbo quickly opens the cell doors containing the dwarves coming to mine last. He tries the key but it doesn't turn. He tries several other keys and none of them work. "Bilbo what's the hold up?" Thorin says coming over.

"The keys, none of the keys work!" Bilbo says frantically as he tries them once more in my cell door lock.

You get up and come over to the door. "Bilbo my cell key isn't on there, Thrandril most likely has it. Go now, while you can. I'll catch up with you before you reach the mountain."

"You must out of your mind Icarus, we aren't leaving here without you!" Insists Thorin as he tries to open the cell. Reaching through the bar you grip his shoulder tightly

"No. You will leave me here and get out of here before you are locked up again. I will see you soon. Now follow Bilbo out." You prompted sternly. Thorin looks at you like he is about to bark back but doesn't. Instead he turns to Bilbo "You heard him. Lead us out Mr. Baggins." He says. Bilbo quickly leads them away and down the stairs to the cellar.

You sit at the door and sigh "Well let's see if my magic does anything to this door I guess." You grip the door bars tightly and press your head to the door as well. You breathe deeply and focus on the door's magic. You heard elven guards yelling in Elvish when they notice the dwarf's cells are empty. Your magic does nothing to edge away at the door. So you try reversing your tactics. Instead of forcing your magic on the door, you try to absorb the door's magic. And it works slowly. After what felt like hours the magic was almost weak enough to force open the door. You hear rushed footsteps coming down the hallway towards your cell. You knew Thrandril would come check on you himself. Quickly you absorbed the rest of the magic and forced the door open with a soft clank. You stood outside your cell stretching your wings fully, all 10 foot wing spaded out down the walk way. Folding your wings lightly you looked down to the corner and saw Thrandril just turn the corner and see you before you dart off in the opposite direction.

Darting past corners and unaware guards as Thrandril runs after you shouting at guards to stop you. You reach the open thrown room and are trapped on the wooden walkway between the thrown and the doors to the hall, a wall of elves on each side. "Icarus stop this. You cannot escape unharmed." Announced Thrandril from his thrown. You crouch down and tense up your wings ready to fly at any moment. "See that's the thing, elf. You have already harmed me as much as you can. And at this point, I know you will not kill me." You reply. You stand on the edge and allow yourself to tip over the edge and fall. Last minute you expand your wings and the force sends you upward. You circle the hall once before crashing into the wall of guards near the door. You feel many of their swords and spears cut your chest and arms and you push through them and take off through the open door. An arrow glanced your cheek causing you to jerk to the right as you fly and another arrow cuts your side deep. You clutch your bleeding side and try to land safely. You can't stop, the guards that were chasing the dwarves are still outside between you and the lake. As you run through the forest you can feel yourself getting light headed from blood lose.

Climbing a tree, you are able to hide for a little while. With the extra magic you absorbed from the cell door you are able to mostly heal your side and cheek. Once the bleeding stops you leap down to the forest floor and make your way towards the river.

After getting turned around a few times you find it and follow it to the lake. You come to the river's mouth and the dwarves are no were to be seen. The sky had gotten dark and night was approaching fast "Maybe they made it into town already." You say hopefully as you walk along the lake's shore towards the town.

In the distance your nocturnal eyes see commotion going on in the lake town. Quickly you take off and fly to the town. As you fly near the towns' center you can see the dwarves had been gathered up by the guards and brought before the town's master. "Enemies of the state, eh?" said the round fat man as he stood in his night robes. The rat like man next to him snickered and added "A desperate bunch of mercenaries if ever there were, sir." You flew over the clearing low and landed in the middle of it between the town master and the company. Gasps came from the crowd of humans watching you as you landed. You left your wings visible and standing up tall you addressed the fat man and creepy rat in front of you "Watch your tough for you do not know to whom you speak! This is no common criminal!" side stepping you gestured to Thorin. "This is Thorin son of Thrain, son of Thror." He steps forward proudly. Most gasps and whispers from the crowd of on lookers. "We are the dwarves of Erabor. And we have come to reclaim our home land." He turns to the crowd of people and reminisces of the days before dragon fire, when the city was the trading capital of the north. As he talks of the great wealth this city once had the town's people cheer and shout joyously.

"Death! That is what you will bring upon this town death and dragon fire." Shouts a man as he pushed his way through the crowd. "If you awaken that beast it will destroy us all."

"You can listen to this naysayer but I promise you this: If we succeed all will share in the wealth of the mountain. You will have enough gold to rebuild this town ten times over!" Thorin's proclamation is greeted with positive shouts from the crowd once more.

"All of you listen! You must listen! Have you forgotten what happened to Dale? Have you forgotten those who died in the fire storm? And for what purpose, the blind ambition of a mountain king so riven by greed he could not see beyond his own desire!" The man argues once more. You side step back behind Thorin as the man approaches. "You have no right to enter that mountain." Warned the man.

Thorin's brow darkens and his voice is deep and kingly as he speaks "I have the only right." You step to the side as Thorin turns to the master of the town. "I speak to the Master of the Lake people. Will you see the prophecy fulfilled? Will you share in the great wealth of our people? What say you?" declared Thorin.

Raising a chubby finger, the man declares "I say unto you. Welcome, welcome king under the mountain and company!"

"Aren't you forgetting something sir? That feathered one there," the rat man points at you "he is obviously no dwarf." Whispers and murmurs filter through the crowd at his words.

Thorin puts a hand on your arm reassuringly as he addresses the lake men once more. "This man is the last Great Skin-Changer of the north! Icarus has been a part of this company from the beginning just as much as any of the others here."


	13. Chapter 13

~Chapter 13~

The town master threw a great dinner feast for the company and provided everyone with rooms for the night. You ate and celebrated with everyone, sitting mostly near Bilbo sense you two were the only two not drinking. Bofur was retelling their escape from Thrandril's cellars. A great story of barrel riders and orc fights. Excusing yourself, you stepped out from the great hall out on to the front porch. You had been given a new red shirt so the other could be repaired and Kili had given you back your purple scarf. You sat on the steps, cup of water in hand and stared down at the floor boards that held everything above the water.

After a while of sitting alone in silence Thorin comes out and sits beside you on the steps. "I told you I'd make it out of there." You sigh to Thorin as you take a drink from your cup. "I'm sorry I was harsh with you about it. But you and the company's safety was more important at the time." You stare into your cup watching the water swirl around.

"Yes you made it out but you were harmed." He points out. You feel his hand come up and gently touch the bandage across your cheek. "What happened before Thrandril returned you to your cell?"

"He…" you began hesitantly "He forced me to drink tainted wine. Whatever was in it made my body unresponsive. I was awake and could feel everything still but I could not make my body move. After that…." You trailed off not wanting to bring back the memories. Thorin took the cup from your shaking hands and set it down. "Let us talk in a more privet place." Suggested Thorin softly as he helped you up and lead you inside.

Up in the privacy of Thorin's room you retold the assault against you. You sat in a chair knees pulled tightly into your chest and your wings wrapped tightly around yourself as you watched Thorin's reaction. You could see the fury in his eyes as he paced around the room. Before he got a chance to respond there was a knock at the door. Getting up you answered the door. Dwalin, Fili and Kili were standing on the other side. You invited them in and shut the door behind them before returning to your chair. "Here, your notebook. Also your shirt and vest are fixed and cleaned now." Said Kili as he handed you the clean clothing and book. "Thorin, could you tell them what happened? I'm going to go change." You said to Thorin as you walked to the washroom.

Through the closed door you could hear Thorin telling your others Ones what had happened to you. You striped off your clothing and hoped in the scolding hot water. It burned but it felt good, as if it were burning off the actions of today. Taking time, you removed the bandage on your cheek and side, making sure to wash each well. Along with washing all the smaller cuts on your arms and chest. You dried, dressed and hid your wings before heading back out into the room. Fili and Kili were talking with their uncle still, in one corner of the room while Dwalin stood by the door. You walked over to Dwalin and leaned on the wall next to him. "This is our fault, I'm so sorry." The dwarf muttered next to you.

You look at him a little surprised. "No it wasn't your fault at all. I should have lead you through the forest better and I should have…. I should have done.… done something different." You babbled as your voice cracked and your eyes got teary. You sit down on the side of the bed, head in your hands and your hair clenched in your fists as you try to hold back sobs. The bed dips on either side of you. Glancing to your sides you see Kili and Thorin and you feel Kili sit behind and hug you. While Kili holds your hand Thorin gently rubs in small circles behind your ear in your hair. And Dwalin kneels in front of you and holds your other hand up to his lips. "Icarus, our treasure, none of what happened to you is your fault. Don't blame yourself. Shhhhh…... it's okay we are here." He coons to you as your sobs calm down. Once you calmed down enough you sit up and say "I think I'm okay now, thank you."

You had chosen to stay with Thorin for the night. Kissing the cheek of the others you sent them off to their rooms. Thorin had gone to bathe and that left you alone in the room. You pulled out the little notebook and checked it over. It was dry and the writing was not damaged thankfully. You take off your shirt and unfold your wings. Carefully you give yourself a good fluffing and some of your feathers shed off. Picking up the few fallen feathers you select he largest one and tosses the others out the window. Sitting down at the desk with your notebook you start to write. You write a few song lyrics and what had happened just now with your Ones. You were so absorbed in your writing you didn't notice Thorin next to you until he spoke. "So it seems German has its own writing as well." He had been looking over your shoulder as you wrote. Thankfully you were writing another song at the moment. "Yeah, I like to write and speak it still so I don't forget it. Plus, no one else knows the language so everything I write can't be translated."

You reply with a smile. Setting down your feather quill and closing your book you stand and hug Thorin tightly. You feel his arms start to wrap around you hesitantly, not sure how to touch your wings that were in the way. You chuckle and release him from your hug. "I don't mind of you touch them you know. It's not going to hurt me." You explain. Warping one of your wings across your front, you take his hand and gently guide it down the feathers. The feeling made you shiver a little. "There see, not hurting at all. As long as you pet in the direction of the feathers. You try." You knelt in front of him an extended your wings behind you a little watching to see what he would do.

He hesitantly put a hand on your shoulder and ran it down your back feathers until he reached the wing. This was a new feeling for you, allowing someone to explore your wings and touch them. The king's fingers traced the wing's base before running his hand up to the top of the wing bone. Then dragged them straight down the long flight feathers until his had fell to his side. Again he ran his hand from your back to the top of the wing bone but this time he continued down the length of the wing to the very end feather.

You looked up at him to see his sapphire eyes looking back at you questioningly. You node yes and he proceeds to do the same to the other wing. While he examines your wings you try your hardest to stay quiet. With each movement over the feathers you felt yourself wanting to moan. When Thorin reached the end of your other wing you were purring loudly. He walks back over to you and pulls you up into a hug. His fingers start to make small circular motions around the base of your wings and it causes you to melt in his hands. Hugging him close to you, you bury your face in his shoulder and moan deeply "Thorin…" you say breathlessly "That…. feels wonderful."

"They are so soft and sensitive, I can see." He chuckles as he stops rubbing my wings. Pulling you closer to him he raises your chin and pressed his forehead to yours. You feel blood rush to your cheeks from the closeness. You knew this gestor of forehead touching was very important and symbolized the bond between people in dwarven culture. You smiled and breathed in his clean dwarf smell. Your wings wrap around the two of you and you whisper "We should get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."


	14. Chapter 14

~Chapter 14~

As everyone readied for the trip up the mountain you felt uneasy. Thorin was acting stranger than normal, more aloft like he was above everyone. 'Just showing off for the people of lake town I guess. He did have to look Kingly if they were going to help us.' You thought to yourself as the company marched down to the boat. As you helped load supplies into the boat you saw Thorin stop Kili from getting on "Not you. You are injured and will slow us down."

"I am going to be there when the doors open, and when we look upon the halls of out forbears…" protested Kili.

"Kili, rest and join us when you are healed." Ordered Thorin as he continued to load the boat. Oin gets up and climbs out of the boat "I shall stay; my duty lays with the wounded." You were very surprised at the king. You had seen Kili this morning and he did look paler then normal. You hoped it was just a cold, something that would pass quickly after a good night's rest. Fili spoke up to his uncle "We've grown up on stories of this mountain. Stories you told us. You cannot take that away from him. I will carry him if I must!"

"Fili one day you will be king and you will understand. I will not forsake this quest for one dwarf." Thorin states coldly. At this Fili climbs out of the boat as well. Thorin catches his arm "Fili don't be a fool. You belong with the company."

"I belong with my brother." He refutes pulling away from his uncle and going to his brother. You tried to speak to Fili but the town's band started to play and the towns master gave a speech that drowned out your words.

Throughout the climb up the mountain you tried to talk with Thorin. But no matter what you tried to bring up he would brush you off or pretend as if he never herded you. About midway up the mountain you gave up on your attempts to talk with him, instead you talked with Bilbo a great deal. While you helped him up difficult parts of the climb you two talked about his garden a great deal. "My nasturtiums will have taken over the pathway and walls by now, the rose bushes will need trimming and my poor snapdragons will be completely buried under everything else." Bilbo say solemnly as you help him up a steep ledge.

"Sounds like a gardener's work is a bed of roses." You said jokingly. Bilbo smiles a little at your play on words, encouraging you to continue. "Okay. What do the letter 'A' and a flower have in common?" you ask with a clever smile. The hobbit's brow furors in thought as he thinks of the answer. "I do not know. What do they have in common?" he responds. You can barely contain your laughter "They both have Bee's after them!" you say between gasps of chuckles. After a few good laughs, you walked in comfortable silence.

Around noon, everyone set down their packs and takes a break for lunch. You sit on top of a large bolder and look out over the Long Lake towards Lake Town. You nibble on some bread but nothing calms the knot of uneasiness. Letting out a sigh of frustration you stand and unfurl your wings. You had been offered a full pack of supplies but you refused and only took a small bag of food for the hike up the mountain. "This is wrong." You say aloud as you slid off the perch. You walk over to Thorin sternly "I will return with Oin, Fili, and Kili when he is healed. My feathers are on end something isn't right." The company gives you a hesitant worried look. Thorin's face shows anger and disagreement. Before he can say anything to try to make you stay, you take off hard and fly back to the town.

It does not take you long to return to the town. Reaching out with your sensitive ears you listen as you fly over and eventually landing on the roof of the house they are staying at. You knock on the door and it is forcefully pulled open by the bargeman that spoke against Thorin yesterday. Your face is still stone frozen with a look of concern and commitment. He says nothing and stands aside for you to enter. You do and head straight for Kili, ignoring the gasps of the three children as you passed them. "Oin what is wrong with him?" you ask quickly as you sit on the edge of the bed Kili is laying on. Fili comes up from behind and hands Oin a bowl of water and a rag. He gives your shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"An Orc arrow in the leg possibly poisoned. I do not know for sure. I will have you go for herbs that will help him, give me a moment." He responds as he examines the younger ones' wound. Kili is passed out but his face is tight with pain and agony. You brush a few strands of hair from his forehead and hold his hand for a few moments until he calms down.

You stand from the bed and turn to face the man and his family. "Sorry I haven't introduced myself. I am Icarus and I am the skin-changer that has been traveling with the company of Thorin Oakenshield. And you are the one I should be thanking for getting them into the town and harboring Kili and Oin in their time of need."

"I am Bard and these are my children; Bain, Sigrid, and Tilda." He says.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all." You say politely and bow a little, with wings slightly relaxed behind you. Oin still isn't ready to tell you what herds he needs, so you talk with Fili by the window for a while.

It is nice talking with him without his brother hovering over both your shoulders. You two talk about the hike up the mountain and how Thorin was acting. It concerns everyone greatly. Both of you tried to get a comfortable conversation but with Kili sick and the whole other part of the company on the mountain going to fight a dragon, everything felt more stressful then normal. Suddenly Kili starts to cry out in pain and thrash about. Quickly Oin calls us over and they both hold him down while you quiet his out cries. "I need Kingsfoil that is the only thing that might save him." Oin says to Bard as he searches through his cupboard.

"We have nightshade and feverfew…. Kingsfoil? It's a weed we feed to the pigs." He says confused.

"Pigs? Weed? Okay I'll be back shortly." You say quick as you rush out the door with feathers puffed. Jumping off the balcony ledge you fly high and up using your eyes to search for the floating stables. You feel the tension in the atmosphere change as the mountain growls and the ground seams to shake under you. You can see Orcs starting to climb over the rooftops. You fly down on to the boards of the town and continue searching on foot hoping they did not see you. Coming across one of the tiny stables, you rip the Kingsfoil out of a pig's mouth and start to make your way back to Bard's home and Kili.

Rushing through and around the small board streets in the town and orc tackles you from the roof top and throws you into a wall of fishing nets that falls on top of you. Your wings instinctively try to flap them off but only get more tangled in the process. More orcs leap down and start encircling you. The first orc approaches with its blade drawn when suddenly an arrow flies in and kills the orc nearest you. Legolas and another she-elf come into the area weapons drawn killing any orc in sight. The horrendous monsters screech and die quickly and the surviving ones are called off and away. Once they are scattered away the she-elf turns towards you. She makes no moves to help or detain you. Keeping steady and weary eye contact, you struggle to helplessly untangle yourself. Legolas comes to your aid and cuts the nets, freeing your wings. You two exchange a look of gratitude before both elves rush off in the direction of the orcs. You take quickly to the sky in the other direction and fly back to Kili and the others.

As you land, it is very noticeable that the orcs broke in. The door has been kicked in and the roof has an orc shaped hole in it. The house inside is chaotic, table and chairs over turned and broken dishes everywhere. However, all the dwarves are alive and so are Bards daughters. Bard and his son on the other hand seem to have gone. You effortlessly turn back over the table and the benches near it, along with the other chairs around the house, making walking room available again. Walking over to the two girls, you give them a warm and comforting look, "Are you young ladies alright?" you ask gently. They aren obviously very shaken up but both give you a nod yes. You smile and respond. "Good. We might need some help in a moment with our dwarven friend, could you gather clean bandage or cloth we can use to cover his wound?" As if on cue, Kili starts writhing in pain on the floor, where he lay with Oin and Fili beside him. Patting the table top as you round it to help you say, "Help me lift him up here were I can see him."

The three of you lift him up onto the table and you leave them to hold Kili down. Accepting the bowl of water from one of the daughters, you tear the Kingsfoil and soak it briefly in the water. Cutting away the ruined pants, you reveal the poison arrow mark. It is festered and oozing grossly. "Hold him still!" you order and he starts to thrash more. As you prep his wound, you think carefully about an Elvish healing incantation you learned during your time in Thrandril Forest. It was used on you when they capture you in the first place, and it might be the only thing strong enough to stop and reverse the poison. The magic you used on Thorin after the Orc and wolf attack can only be used when the heart is failing and or extreme physical injuries, and Kili's condition is not that dire it is mostly painful. "Here I go." You say pressing the soaked herb into the infected flesh and start reciting, " _Menno o nin na hon i eliad annen annin, hon leitho o ngurth._ " Repeatedly you say this until Kili's screaming and thrashing stop. He looks at you in a haze with glossy eyes. Your hands start faintly glowing with your own magic and he lays back exhausted. After a few minutes of elven chanting and hand glowing you pull your hands away feeling spent. Oin takes your place at Kili's leg and Fili helps you sit down by the window. All feathers are slightly ruffled and both of your arms have patches of fluff on them. Sighing deeply you address Oin, "That was the strongest elven incantation I know. He will not sleep long but he won't be able to walk on that leg until tomorrow."


	15. Chapter 15

~Chapter 15~

"The loud clanging of bells jolts you from your light nap. "Get Kili up we must leave now." You say hurriedly as you help wake Kili. The youngest daughter stares to fill her small bag with her belongings but her sister makes no move to pack hers. "We are not leaving. Not without father." Stated Tilda, the eldest daughter. You come over look her sternly in the eyes. "If you stay here your sister will die. Would your father want that?" she quickly shakes her head no and helps her sister finish packing. Quickly you prepare Bards small boat and then return inside. "Quickly into the boat," you say pushing the girls out the boat. Looking back, you see the others struggling to carry Kili, who can't walk with his bad leg yet. Quickly you pick him up with little struggle, carry him out the door, and place him in the back of the boat. Once everyone is in you push off and stand at the boat head guiding them through the burning town. You watch as Smaug the dragon swoop over the town breathing fire inferno on everything in his path. He makes more and more passes over the town breathing fire endlessly. Without a second thought, you sit down in the boat and take off your vest and shirt. "Icarus what are you doing?" Fili questions frighten, fully knowing what you intend to do. You hand Kili your notebook and wrap your scarf around Fili's shoulders. You touch foreheads with both princes, "Listen, I love you two deeply and I love Thorin and Dwalin too. I am going to distract the dragon as much as I can to help people get out of town. Please get these girls back to their father and brother safely."Carefully you step out of the boat onto the burning dock with bear feet not caring if they burn a little. Opening your wings fully, one good full force flap shoots you into the smoke filled sky. With each movement of powerful wings, you climbed higher into the night sky, feathers emerging quickly over your chest and arms. Once high, enough in the sky you puff out your chest and empty your lung with a horrific loud screech. Smaug halted his endless fire and turned his evil scaled head in your direction.

"I thought I smelled you some where bird man. Your snooping only gave way to more curiosity, I see." Hissed Smaug as his turned toward you fully. Following his head, his body followed and faced you. Quickly you dive around his head and barely get out of the way of his snapping jaws. Smaug chuckles and takes off following you up into the clouds. Once above the low hanging clouds you sift fully into a giant white owl. "Yes, my curiosity has always driven me. Now I'm curious about you again, you fat lizard. You should be grateful I don't just want you dead." You say in the hollow voice of the great winged beast. Diving forward once again, you reach your talons out and snatch at his snout and eyes. A great roar of anger and frustration comes from him as he breathed a great wall of fire after your tail feathers. Smaug chases you around the clouds trying your best to keep from swooping too low to the town or the shore of town refuges.

As the fight ensues, you can tell Smaug is growing board of the cat and mouse. You take more and more risks when you dive towards him until your luck finial runs short. He breaths fire and the flames lick your tail feathers catching them on fire. Panic floods your mind as you try to stop the smoldering tail. You dive down hard into the freezing cold water to put out the embers. Your wings break the surface beating furiously trying to get your head above the water. Slowly you calm down until your body floats gently on the surface. Relief coming over you as the freezing water cools the burns and claw marks. Smaug had landed on the smoldering town and seemed to be talking to someone on the top of the bell tower. With great difficulty, you take off from the water and fly around towards the town. You watch as the dragon charges at the bell tower and the man and his son, whom you had met only a few hours ago, fire a huge black arrow into the loss scale opening in his chest. A great land shaking bellow comes from the monster as he is impaled. Taking the rare opportunity of weakness, you dive into him, sending him reeling backward. Smaug takes off into the sky grasping at the air and smoke like a drowning animal. Following him up into the sky, you latch your talons onto his chest, pushing the black arrow deeper into his heart. The heat from his inferno chest is fading quickly. As a last ditch effort he grabs on to you, his cold claws trapping you against him as he dies. As you fall, you try to shift back into your smaller human self to escape but to no avail. The dragon's dead body lands hard on the town trapping you beneath it. Your head smacks hard against one of the buildings and your vision goes black.


	16. Late Chapter update!

Sorry everyone I am at a writers block!

This week i moved back home from college, and wasn't able to write.

I am super sorry about this and not updateing everyone sooner.

I will be updating next week

Thank you for your patience.

~DeCat


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